I'm mostly a lurker, not just here - everywhere in life.  I'm the guy standing in the corner at parties 
Took me forever to get over 250 on V3 and I was signed up in the first week it went live.  same thing on v2.  No avatar doesn't bother me though as I surf with them off anyways.  I've been at the web since Mosaic and I like snappy page loading.  
Now that post counts are no longer displayed I don't even have to feel inadaquate.