I find that the lack of avatars improves the conversation, specifically because it slightly increases anonymity. On sites with avatars, I tend to use the avata

I find that the lack of avatars improves the conversation, specifically because it slightly increases anonymity. On sites with avatars, I tend to use the avatars to filter out people that I consider idiots. When I read Hacker News, I mostly ignore the user names and just read the posts. The result has been that I tend to do a better job of judging HN contents by their merit than by their origin. At least twice a year, I'll read a very insightful post, become curious about the author, and discovered that it was someone that I had previously thought was an idiot. I've taken two lessons from this 1) I'm a terrible judge of character. 2) Focusing on content over personality improves the quality of the discussion.