We would like to make as much as possible of the resources here at Bladeforums available for free -- heck, we'd like to make all of it free if we could ... but somehow we have to raise enough money so it doesn't cost Spark too much out of his own pocket to keep this place going.
It would be nice if people would donate money spontaneously, and in fact some do -- but not enough people donating enough money to keep the place going. Bandwidth costs a lot, and the place keeps growing bigger and needing more bandwidth and more powerful servers.... Something has to give.
So, we've reserved some features for the members who contribute. We would have reserved avatars for paying members earlier but we couldn't until the software upgrade. Avatars cost money; they have to be stored on our servers and it adds to our bandwidth charges every time someone views one. If you can't afford a gold membership you're still welcome to use Bladeforums, read and post here, but you can live without an avatar, and we can live without the expenses involved in providing you with one.