You're right Mercury,
it uses PHPBB, which is quite popular board... should be too, it's good (and free, i think).
As for the Avatars, it's a configurable option, can be turned on or off.
I think we've started it with it off, because having all the avatars on a page does make it take longer to download a thread, also uses up more server space and since we're on a metered bandwidth setup too it would be using more of that for not such a gain.
Think we'll be moving the site to a new server soon, with more bandwidth and space. maybe it will make an appearance then
Anyway, that's my take on it, but Tony is that man to answer this
Cheers
Carlo