An “avatar” (at least in the web world), is an image—perhaps a photograph or drawing or cartoon—that is your visual image to users in a web community such as these forums.
As I write this, I just uploaded an “social commentary” avatar that says “Mean People Suck”. This avatar will show up next to all my posts on this site. And, since I post a lot, you’ll probably get tired of it. So will I.
The beauty of an avatar is that you can change it. Most people pick one and keep it for a while. But, I have not yet found one that I thought was “me” enough to commit to it for the long term. So, as my mood changes, I’ll change my avatar.
Uploading your own avatar to this site is easy. Go to “Your Control Panel” at the top of the page. Under “Personal Settings” click on “Edit Avatar”. From there you can view a few avatars that are in my avatar library and choose one of those. Or, you can upload any avatar that you think fits you. You can find avatar libraries by searching the web. One good site is Avatarity.com. Please, no offensive avatars on this site. Another good site is AllAvatars.com.
You can also upload a picture of yourself that people can view when they look at your profile. And, some people use their picture as an avatar.
All avatars should be no bigger than 100 X 100 pixels and limited to jpg, gif, or png images.