For a Civil War banner, go to
THIS thread here to make your request. Just post up whatever pic you want added onto it, along with whatever "I'm with..." statement you want it to say. One of us will the whip it up for you and post it for you there in that thread. Once THAT is done, do the following:
1) scroll up to the top of the screen and open up your "USER CP" in a new tab (if you're still using IE, then do it in a new window. After that, switch to Firefox for your browser).
2) in your USER CP panel, on the left you'll see a bunch of options. Click on the one that says "EDIT SIGNATURE". You will then get another screen with a little window in it.
3) go back to the first tab/window where you have the pic of the banner. Copy the URL for the banner (right-click and go to the "Properties" of the banner to get it), and then go BACK to the second tab (where you've clicked "EDIT SIGNATURE" and paste the in the window. Make sure that:
a) the URL of the banner says something like "IMAGESHACK" on it. Most of us will use ImageShack to UL these banners we whip up, so you will probably be able to skip this step.
If, however, for some reason it doesn't say "IMAGESHACK", then save the pic onto your computer, then go to
www.imageshack.us and UL the pic there. Once it's uploaded, you'll get a bunch of link options. Copy the one that says "DIRECT LINK" and paste that in your EDIT SIGNATURE window.
b) make sure that the
tags are on the left and right ends of the link, respectively. If those tags are not there, the picture will not show.
Then you just click the SAVE CHANGES button and you should be good to go.
The pic under your name is known as your Avatar. In your USER CP, you'll see one of the options is "EDIT AVATAR". Click that and from there you can choose from a set of 9 pre-loaded avatars, OR you can use one of your own personal choosing. The guidelines regarding size (both in pixels and in filesize) are given there. If you try to upload a pic that's too big, the forum will not let you use it.