The Load-time for Dial-up users, and several nasty hacking, and other tricks,
can be easily done.

Display the Yes/No Buttons on the Profile or Board Options Page for:
1) Display Pictures in Posts?
2) Hide Avatars in Posts? (you may already have this)
2) Hide Pictures in Signatures?

When a large numger of avatares are to be displayed people pick them from all over the net, and every address means hitting the DNS Servers, then that Website, and doing the same 20 or 30 more times. That takes time, when you get users that have avatars.

When ppl insert images in side the posts themselfves via hyperlinks it can take a while for pages to load, I've seen some pages with a dozen pictures on it and it takes a long time to load the big pics for an entire Web page.

There are some nasty hacks that I've seen attempted onm my machine when pictures are allowed to be displayed in avatars, signatures, or in the posts. Hackers can spread whatever they want to other machines, and get personal info too, suing certain techiques when pics are displayed, and Forums and chatrooms are notorious for places in which machines pick-up
a nasty "cold". So, you're doing a favor for informed ussers, and certainly making the load time faster, when there are lots of pics and avatars that start coming up.

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What I know exists, does not lead me to conclude what does not exist, does exist. – treat2