I'll have to jump into the fray and agree with you here. When I think of many posters, the first thing that my brain conjures up is an image of their sig...not their username. For example, I have no idea what the numbers are after Susie's name, but I know her siggy immediately when I see it. It's really how I recognize most people on here. To me, avatars make the internet a more 3 dimensional "place".