Note: I'm new to Glitch, so I'm not positively sure that this idea hasn't been suggested before. Also, English is my second language so there might be grammatical horrors here. Please let me know if that happens.
I'm used to go to forums, and Avatars are a big deal there. Usually I just go straight to the content and don't really read the names of the people posting unless it is somewhat remarkable, so I tend to ignore the poster's names. Note that I'm not one to avoid text, as I'm majoring in Phi, so I guess Using avatars is important in terms of allowing a faster identification of the people while reading.
I know that Glitch is mostly focused on the game and the forum its on a second place, but probably it would be a good idea to show our Glitches as our avatars; maybe just the face to avoid wasting space. Also, adding signatures could be nice: this allows people to link to groups and build identity in the forums, which could help generating cohesion in the user base.