Animated emoticons are kind of cute, as long as they’re small and not overused. Animated avatars should be considered an offense punishable by drawing and quartering. So should stupid pictures of your homely brats, but animations are even worse. I don’t even care if it’s funny or cute because it’s only funny or cute THE FIRST FIFTEEN TIMES I HAVE TO FUCKING LOOK AT IT. Jeezus, I’m there to try and help you; can’t you do my eyes a little favour and choose something that doesn’t flash and move around on the page? No, you make me take time to drill down and get the location of the actual image, then put it in my already groaning-under-the-load Adblock filter. I block adverts because most of them are animated. I block scripts so stuff on the page stays still unless I say it can move. I block flash content because it’s animated, too. I can disable GIF animations, but it has to be all of them or none of them, and all I want to do is make your stupid goddamn avatar stay still so I can answer your questions without the light show. Animated shit stopped being interesting back in 1990-something. Dumbasses.