Hi Nancy, welcome to PC!

I didn't think to take notes when I was new here but from what I can remember (and from what other new members have mentioned) you need at least five, more likely ten, approved posts before you can upload images. The software keeps track of it automatically. Till then, you can choose one of the predefined avatars (about 900 of them) but you can't upload one of your own.

Whether your signature (with or without a photo) is visible to another member depends on several things: whether you have a signature in place, whether you've enabled the option to show it on your posts, and whether the other member has enabled the option to see other members' signatures on their posts.

I use a fairly slow connection. To save page-loading time, I keep signatures turned off. I can see yours only when I go to your profile.

When I was new I tried a signature line (without a picture) but it seemed to fit some of my posts better than others. I finally settled for turning it off and adding a custom "signature" to each post where I wanted one:

-------------------------------
This is not a signature