By hosting the avatars yourself, it gives you control over the size of the avatar, and what is loaded. You wouldn't want a porn pic as an avatar for a user? It make take a little more administration to maintain the avatars yourself, but it will save you headaches in the long run.
Donate to UBBDev today to help aid in Operational, Server and Script Maintenance, and Development costs.
Please also see our parent organization VNC Web Services if you're in the need of a new UBB.threads Install or Upgrade, Site/Server Migrations, or Security and Coding Services.