It's kind of really uncomfortable for me (rather than annoying) to see users without avatars, as if they're faceless entities roaming around and I can't familiarize or identify with them.
I keep changing my avatar every month when i find something interesting. I think my avatar was originally was a TF2 pic but it didn't fit so I got a nice Alucard avatar for myself and went with that for a while.
I really don't know about this thread if it should be moved to IB or not?
Also avatars don't really bother me because while I would feel weird if a really hardcore user did it like someone with over 1000 posts other than that though it's just something most people steal from someone else so it's not really their "face".
To a certain extent, avatars and signatures provide us with a form of identity on forums and other online communities, not just that of Fakku. Users with avatars, apart from the default ones, give me the impression that they are willing to stay around for a while.