Is there a way to remove this? If so, then how exactly do i go about it? Getting rid of that feature so that a normal avatar can be uploaded without any cropping.

Is there a way to remove this? If so, then how exactly do i go about it? Getting rid of that feature so that a normal avatar can be uploaded without any cropping.

​.

You can find a few settings here ..

ACP > Members > Groups ..

 

 

.

I think he meant a way to have rectangular avatars with different heights and widths.

Unfortunately IPS4 will crop avatars to a square shape. I hope they'll change this in the future, so one can choose.

The square shape is the only one that works in every situation – that’s why Twitter, Facebook and so on have them. If you allow arbitrary aspect ratios, how should that look in a list view, like in the forums? 

I suppose that's true. Personally I have no issues with square/circular avatars. For many it's probably a matter of getting used to it. At least one can make the avatars bigger