My apologies to Merps Mom for playing with her message (the first mortal sin of moderating.)
I frequently second-guess Framer, and that's what I'm doing here. If we all started using multi-gigabyte animated avatars, The Grumble would grind to a screeching halt, especially for those of us using dial-up internet access. I suspect that's the reason for the option, in our profiles, of shutting off everyone's avatars when we read The Grumble.
I found out just how distracting an animated avatar can be when I used, for about three hours, a large dancing bear. (That one should be Denny's.) It drove me crazy almost immediately. When Rebecca mentioned she liked it, I knew it had to go! So I switched to a small, discrete GIF that I still use.
MM may have been kidding - I'm not certain - but moderators AREN'T any better than anyone else - certainly not any more mature. It's just that there aren't very many of us, so it's difficult for us to do any serious damage. Doesn't keep us from trying, though.