yeah I've been thinking about lowering the avatar size a bit cause sometimes it throws off the template a bit. I don't know if I can do without the animation though cause I like the funny animated av's too lol. I think reducing the avatar size is a good start though.
the chatbox is something I don't think I could get rid of now because everyone likes it so much but I did notice that it put a huge dent in forum posting at first. now it has kind of balanced out though. its one of those things i almost wish i didn't install but can't really do anything about now because it's popular on the site lol. if i ever decide to really try to make my forums big and earn real money off of it i'll have to get rid of it. right now its a small close community of people who have all known eachother for a few years so its not too big a deal.
thanks for the input though.