When you first join the community, your avatar will default to the first letter of your username (e.g. a large S in a circle).
You can easily upload a picture or avatar of your choosing from your profile preferences page. To get there, click on your existing avatar in the upper right corner (e.g. the large S). That will open a drop-down menu. Right below your avatar, the first item on the right in the drop-down is a gear symbol. Click on that gear symbol to go to your preferences page.
Once there, you’ll see an entry for Profile Picture about half way down the page. Click on the pencil icon to the right of that entry and select Custom Picture then Upload Picture. You’ll be prompted to upload a picture from your computer. Once that’s done click on Save Changes and you’re all set.
You will get the following message letting you know that the avatar might take a minute to update due to your browser caching: “You’ve successfully changed your profile picture but it might take some time to appear due to browser caching.” Typically a refresh of the web page will trigger the updated avatar to appear. If that doesn’t work, hold down the Ctrl key and hit F5 to force a full refresh of the page.
If you run into any issues with the process please let me know and I’ll be happy to help you get your profile picture uploaded.
While you’re on the profile preferences page there are other settings that you can adjust, including your username, a bio, and all of your email settings. Look for future tips of the day on how to update those.