I’ve added a plugin so folks can upload their profile avatar without relying on Gravatar.
Please keep a backup, in case this plugin doesn’t work out. (I haven’t had nearly as much time to devote to this site as it probably deserves, so please be patient.)
But I think I might have prefered some other forum software over wordpress tbh. It has always felt to me more suited to blogs with reader comments, rather than traditional discussion forums, even though it does serve that function mechanically. It can take quite a bit of customisation to get wordpress to feel right in my experience.
@watchful as an adiminstrator, i believe you can edit user profiles manually to enable this privacy setting (for those who haven’t done it already). it should be quick to do with so few users registered.