Item 1. I believe you posted this before.
Goto Control Panel » Profile Settings + Avatars Tab
You need to set both path settings and use the test link on that page. The test link is a big thing it writes a test file to the path.
As well as filling out the rest of the info.
If the users are not uploading avatars then you need to check the permission settings.
Goto Control Panel » Site Permissions
Expand Can specify a remote avatar
Place a 1 in each group you want to allow.
Item 2
Yes you are now member 2 ,Member one is reserved for deleted members per say(Anonymous)
Item 3
If I understand this question correctly. This would be the same as a avatar today. Or are you talking about something else?
URL to your site???
