Lack of new people is killing the backroom and the entire forum

[caravel]

As for the retort that we have URL avatars available, that's a very poor option. URL avatars doesn't change the fact that I have to have a regular avatar as well. Who wants to look at two avatars in every post? That makes the site look even worse than it does normally.

The URL avatars are pretty much pointless because guests cannot see them - they still see the portraits - and most users don't have them turned on or use them anyway. You can turn off the gallery avatars altogether and switch to the URL avatars, but as most members here aren't using them, it's pointless as you'll mostly only see the default one.

My whole argument about avatars is centred around improving perception of the .org and thus helping to bring new people in, what is the point in the URL avatars if they will achieve neither?