I've been around on Bay12 for some time, having registered a good while before the forum change. As such, I was around when there were only about 20 or so active members (if that) and the absolutely hilarious forum software couldn't support avatars or sig images.
Then we switched over, and the new software presented picture-related capabilities. Toady put it up to a vote as to whether we should keep going without images or utilize the new tools. And then, for some reason, there was a massive fight.
I made my opinion clear then, and I'm not ashamed to say that I fought for a forum without avatars, and without sig images. I simply did not see a need for them, and I found them quite annoying in a number of cases where I had experienced them in the past (except for the ones I myself used, which were of course only the highest quality of backyard Gmod snaps edited in MSpaint).
The vote, as I'm sure you all can figure out, tipped in favor of allowing images and we've never really gone back. However, as a statement of my position on the matter I have refrained from picking up an avatar since. I've seen a couple of the avatars picked by people I knew and interacted with from the old days, and I haven't seen one yet that made my opinion of them go up.
In my profile settings, I have both avatars and signature images turned off. If I can't identify you from your writing style or your name, then I just don't know you and I'm not afraid to admit it. I still maintain that trying to identify people based on a medium that changes very often and very wildly is quite silly when it's used against something that doesn't change at all and can always be used to point out the individual associated with it. But that's besides the point.
So, yes. I either know you, or I don't. I expect to be treated the same way. You either know me from my writing style, my opinions and my name, or you don't know me. There are a hell of a lot more people registered with Bay12 now than there were before, so it would be downright ridiculous to even think you could be completely familiar with all of them.
On a completely different subject, the thing I find funny about that Euclid strip is that the perspective and object relations are completely wonky. It looks like he's talking to a gnome on top of a brick wall.