I think you're talking about the boards. I think I agree, and I just changed my avatar (icon) so that it doesn't "flash," because of what you pointed out. However, in your profile, you have the option of disabling people's avatars (meaning you don't see them), and you can also disable automatic image showing (or whatever it is called).

As far as the icons are concerned, I use the simple, regular emoticons, and hardly ever use anything animated.

And dave, the other good news....if you used static icons, it's use less bandwidth