As you probably noticed, we recently re-introduced avatars properly. Some of you have already found the form

Here's how they work.
Go to your
User Control Panel, click the
Profile tab, and click
Edit avatar... or
this link should take you there. What you can do next depends on your membership level.
Economy ClassEconomy Class members have a default avatar. This cannot be changed.

- av_economy.jpg (99.9 KiB) Viewed 430 times
Business ClassBusiness Class members can choose from a number of preset avatar images, or use the default.

- av_business.jpg (117.94 KiB) Viewed 430 times
Click the one you want, and click the button labelled "Click here to set your avatar".
Please note: You may need to wait up to 10 minutes for your choice to take effect throughout the site. (I'm working on making that happen instantly, but it's trickier than it should be.) It works immediately now.
We'll occasionally release a few more preset avatars as our membership grows.
First Class and Ultimate ClassOur First Class and Ultimate Class members can choose from the same preset images as Business Class members, but can also upload their own personal avatars.

- av_first.jpg (137.79 KiB) Viewed 430 times
Points to note about personal avatars:
- Avatars must be PNG format (not JPEG or GIF), and exactly 66x33 pixels. Anything else won't work.
- We make the image slightly transparent, so bright, contrasty images work best; if you start with a muddy mess, you'll end up with a muddier mess.
- We apply a fade to the right-hand edge, so you might want to have the content of your image a little to the left of centre.
There's no limit on how many avatars you can upload, but don't go
too crazy - after all, you can only use one at a time

Once uploaded, your image will appear on the avatar page right away.
As with Business Class avatars, though, it may take up to ten minutes before your new avatar takes effect across the whole site.QuestionsWhy didn't it work?If you didn't get an error message, wait 10 minutes or so. Still no avatar? Drop me a
PM and I'll take a look. We did have some problems with filesystem permissions in the beginning, but those should -
should - have been resolved.
What if my Business/First Class membership expires?When your paid membership expires, your avatar will be set to the default for your new membership level.
If you were a First Class member, your personal avatars remain on the server. Just upgrade to First again and you'll be able to use them. In fact, your most recently uploaded avatar will be set for you.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.