Would appreciate some advice on what I’d like to implement. I don’t think I properly understand the current avatar system.
I think that new users get an auto-generated icon based on the first letter of their username.
What I’d like. New users continue to get assigned this auto-generated icon. However in their profile, I’d like them to be able to access a library (from avatars that we’ve purchased).
From what I’ve read, if I upload a bunch of avatars, this just changes the default assigned avatars for new users and doesn’t give them access to a library, which isn’t what I’d prefer - I’d prefer users get to self-select from the library.
Your understanding seems to be correct. With the default Discourse settings, new users will be assigned a Gravatar avatar if they have uploaded an image to Gravatar and associated it with their email address. If the new user does not have a Gravatar, they will be assigned a letter avatar based on their username. Users can upload a custom avatar from their preferences page once they have activated their account.
If instead of the default settings, you enable the selectable avatars enabled site setting, and have uploaded selectable avatars to the selectable avatars site setting, a random avatar will be assigned to new users from your selectable avatars list. Users can change their avatar on their preferences page, but they only have the option to select one of your uploaded avatars.