I completely agree, while I respect the minimalism the site is striving for it really does have a negative affect on discussion; most comments sections appear as a stream of black and white occasionally broken up by some blue and it is far too impersonal. I don't think that Avatars are necessarily the only way to go nor even the right way. I propose give users a few dots next to their username and let them choose the colours of them, this would give sufficient personality and distinction to comments and help users recognise their friends at a glance. It wouldn't be too difficult to implement, nor require much space to store, certainly less than an avatar system would. It would be tempting to tie earning these dots in with the badge system, but something doesn't quite sit right with that idea to me... though perhaps an extra one or two as a donation perk would be okay. Edit: Like this, but preferably in-line with the current name and time