Avatars can be enabled in bbPress 1.0.2. Just look in the admin settings.
If you want people to be able to upload their own avatars to your server, you need a plugin:
This is really old and might not work with 1.0.2:
https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/avatar-upload/#post-219
This should be in bbPress by default, the ability to upload your own avatar picture.
I know you can achieve this via plugin, but honestly, it was a nightmare for me to get this working.
Any webmaster that isn’t really tech savvy or doesn’t have the time to figure this out, will just leave it.
I agree. It’s unbelievable actually in this day and age. I have been unable to get the plugin working yet. 
Any webmaster that isn’t really tech savvy…
bbPress is not aimed at non-tech-savvy people. Infact the same with WordPress really. Editing of files and the ability to use FTP is a must or the thing won’t work (you have to edit and upload a config file).
Editing or changing anything involves some basic-PHP knowledge really, and this is pretty much always going to be the way of it – if you don’t got for a premium theme/framework/plugin.
It’s unbelievable actually in this day and age.
We hear this from time to time, and i can’t understand why it comes up. But it comes down to “basic” features and what is now considered “standard” features for forums. The difference is that “basic” features are things that forums need to do it’s job. “Standard” features are from a personal perception based on what other forum solutions have – that doesn’t make them any less valid as feature requests.
bbPress is always going to be feature-less in comparison to other forums out there, with the reliance on people writing plugins or editing the code to customize things for themselves – thats an aim, not a side effect. As much as the people on this forum try and help out those that are new or not quite sure, the realism is we’re years away from a free “out of the box” solution for 90% of the requests people make.
I believe Gravatars are supported by default in v 1.0+.
Because Gravatars are in the core, I remember reading once that it should be easier to create avatar plugins using the Gravatar hooks. I think Bavatar uses these hooks:
https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/bavatars/
Offtopic- But in my opinion bbPress should have only the basic feature set and additional functionality (may be popular) should be supported by plugins. And by plugins which I mean some actual official plugins because the functionality is popular among other forum scripts.
The problem is, everyone defines “basic” in a different way.
To anyone who is having issues with avatars. Check out the ‘Bavatars’ plugin. It’s much more user friendly and it ‘just works’ in the same way that many WP plugins do. Upload and hit activate. A dream.
@kevinjohngallagher I say all of this respectfully, but realize that I have a different background and come from a different place.
You “hear this from time to time” because it’s a recurring problem. Maybe not for some, and certainly not for you, but it is for many given the comments that I’ve seen go unanswered on the forums. I don’t know what ‘free’ has to do with this conversation. There are many ‘free’ software projects that are way more friendly than the existing ‘situation’ with BBPress. WordPress itself is more user friendly.
“90% of the requests people make”…? The different between ‘basic’ and ‘standard’ is semantic at this point and doesn’t move the conversation forward. It’s a status quo argument that I run into on a daily basis in my profession. I don’t accept it there, nor do I accept it here. @Chrishajer is exactly right. If’ we’re going to discuss this from percentage perspective. My point is that avatars should be in the 10% of the included feature set. I’m not asking for anything special here. Just the ability to place a tiny image next to my name when I post. It’s 2010.
