OK - I've tried to condense all avatar info into one post. If I've left out anything, please let me know.AVATAR GUIDELINES:1. Your avatar (theimage that appears with your forum ID/nickname) may be a photo or a graphic.2. Photos must belong to YOU or you must have PERMISSION to use the photo from its owner.Note: Federal copyright laws prohibit copying pictures from books, shirts, magazines, the internet, or any other media without permission of the photographer/artist.3. Photos should be approximately the size of my own avatar or Karen's (MsBritmor)...no larger. Larger photos distort the message board itself and make it difficult to read.4. Graphics should also remain small - similar to those on the forum.5. Where can you find graphics? AIMOO has a small collection you may choose from during registration. Your avatar can be changed at will. There are many graphics websites offering free graphics which you may use as long as you are certain they are open to public use (not copyrighted).6. As Admin, I reserve the right to remove avatars that are too large or that do not otherwise follow these rules.7. Thanks to Kristin W. for the following instructions on how to upload your photo as avatar:1. Open an account (this is free)http://www.villagephotos.com/2. On your account page is a box on the right-hand side that says"My Albums" and underneath that is a link that says *create new album*, click this link.3. Now it will ask you to name the folder. (I will use AVATAR for our purposes) Next click "create folder"4. The next page displayed is "MY PHOTO ALBUMS", click on the folder you just named (AVATAR)5. About half way down the page is a link labeled "click here to upload photos", click on the link6. Now you can upload your images by using the "browse" button and locating them on your computer.7. After you have chosen which photos you want to upload, click "upload".8. Under the image of the photo you just uploaded is a link "copy URL", click on that and it will copy and paste the URL to your clipboard.9. go to your Profile page on Simply Schnauzers. Click "change my avatar". A new page will open. About 3 or 4 sentences down you will see this sentence....You can input the image link here : ( Recommended image width size is 100 pixel or your image may not be displayed properly.)underneath this is the box that you paste your URL into. Now click "update profile" and you are done! It will take a little longer the first time since you have to open an account, but you can do the whole thihg from start to finish in 15 minutes. The only thing that may lengthen the process is if the size of your photo is very large. Avatars should be around 100 x 130 pixels at most, you can resize your photo right on the villagephotos site or do it with your own software before you upload the image.