Self-selected avatars are:

• a quick, effective method to communicate bio info about a user
• who they are,
• where they are coming from,
• are they young/old,
• male/female,
• so many messages can be conveyed with an image.

For me a quick look at an avatar will give me a lot of information that will help me respond to a post.

I have not noticed any difference in post quality between boards that have fancy smilies and those that don't. The ones with fancy smilies find me grinning more, that's all. And I think that has value. Helping readers be less grumpy could reduce the workload for moderators.

An avatar, like an inline image, is just content. We (i.e., the site community as a whole) deal with content every day and society hasn't collapsed. I seriously, seriously doubt there will be a rush to post naughty avatar photos. Certainly nothing beyond the occasional trolls, spammers, and hotheads we deal with every day anyway.

I vote for more smilies.

One board I am on, Offtopic, has about 50 different smilies... sometimes they say what you think better than words.

Might be nice to have the Euro symbol as well as I keep forgetting the key combination that creates it.
And I like the ideas about seasonal/birthday smilies and those that are travel related.

I would request a replacement for , as it looks obscene. What's more, the tooltip says 'embarrassment', when the accepted meaning among the kids today is "eek!".

We definitely need the "Santa" smiley from this
http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smilies/smilies.html board for Wharvey!!

I think the judicious use of smilies is great - and on more than one occassion
I'm certain they have diffused what could have become full blown flame-fests.

While I certainly don't think that we need a huge addition of smilies, a small, purposeful collection would be nice. As stated above, maybe some related to travel would suit the forum, or maybe just a few more general smilies. I certainly support the concept.

I agree with others that the country flag list would be a great addition. And I also like the suggestions about any smilies or icons that have to do with travel.
I think we need to evaluate what amenities we offer here on FT and not just be satisfied with the status quo. If we can come up with some tweaks as a result of this thread then it's a win/win IMO.
This isn't the biggest challenge that faces FT but it's something we can address while handling other big picture issues.

For FlyerTalk, it might be useful to have such icons as an airplane, train, automobile, dining (the familiar knife, fork and plate icon), clock, ticket, bed (for hotel rooms, you perverts!), etc. to better and more quickly convey as to what the message is about. Used properly, these icons have the potential to be time-savers, especially to those who have limited time to peruse FlyerTalk.

More “symbol” icons such as those would certainly be welcomed by me.

Why do we need more smilies, it's because they are fun. There are some people here that are set against them, they say that believe that a point can be made eloquently without the use of any graphical aid.

As those of us who frequent other IBB’s realize, the “smilie” choices on FT are somewhat rudimentary. We’ve got the standard , , , , etc. Pretty much the same choices we’ve had for years.
Other sites have a much wider choice of smilies. And some are quite obnoxious and distracting IMO. Especially the ones with motion. But I think there’s room to add a few additional smilies that may help us express ourselves more effectively.

Smilies are not solely for entertainment value. As FlyerTalk increases it’s international reach, the judicious use of smilies can cut across language barriers and promote more effective communications. pretty much means in whatever language you speak. Plus even when we all speak the same language, the written word is not nearly as expressive as the spoken word. Sometimes smilies can substitute for the inflection or gesture we might add to a spoken sentence.