Ok because of public beta 2 of Expression Engine, we can now have avatars for members! Here’s how to set it up:
1. After you are logged in, click on profile in the upper right portion of the menu.
2. Click on “Edit your profile”. You can probably fill in anything else you’d like others to see as well.
3. In the bottom box, “Avatar URL” put the URL to the image you woul like to use as your avatar.
Special notes: You should be using a 50×50 image. The end result is shown restricted to 50×50, so please try to resize it so that it looks right and good. If you put in a URL to a gigantic image, causing slow downs, I’ll ask you to change it. If I get no results from that I’ll have to take it out. 
I wouldn’t like to do that though.
Where does it show? This avatar will show up in your comments. You can view any comments now, and you’ll see my avatar. Any questions, let me know!
(more on this later)