Firstly, what is an avatar? Well, it' the small picture, about twice the size of a stamp, that you see on users posts on the forum or on peoples profiles.
Avatars either show a picture of the person who has posted, or a picture they like. It can be of anything you choose, though genital pictures aren't allowed as avatars on FreeSwinging.
To place an avatar on your profile, which will then subsequently show on any forum posts you make, is easy to do. You need a picture that is 120pixels by 120 pixels or under. It also has to be under 45kb in size. If you aren't sure if the picture you wish to use is suitable, the simplest way of testing it is to try and upload it. If it is too big (either pixels or kb) it will tell you so. If it works, then job done. If not, try out this handy little tool: Avatar resizer follow the very simple procedure there and you'll have an avatar sized pic in under 30 seconds.
To upload your avatar - go to the User Control Panel (once you've logged in of course!) and from there click on the "profile" tab. You'll then see an option to "Edit Avatar". You can upload the picture you want, then click on submit. It will then tell you if you've been successful or not. If not, it will say why and you may need to further edit your picture to fit the avatar limits.
If you are really struggling to get an avatar loaded, don't panic. Just drop a Moderator a quick message (with a copy of the pic you wish to use) and explain you're having difficulty. It might not be an immediate response, but your avatar can be uploaded by one of the Mod team, once they have some time.
If there is something else we haven't covered and you wish to ask about avatars then please do. It might end up in here helping out someone else.