How do I chance my Avatar into a real picture?

Messenger avatar appears modified/pixelated ! Help ?!?

• 1 week ago my Yahoo Messenger avatar started to appear differently. If I look at me in my list, the avatar seems normal, but my friends see it like it has been edited. By this I mean colored, gray, even pixelated ! It's like a photo taken with a very old mobile phone camera. It does this for every avatar I put there, regardless of the format of the picture. I've tried to change it from different computers, on which my friends have no problems with their avatars, but still no luck. I've tried from Windows XP, Windows 7, Messenger 10, Messenger 11 Beta, etc. No luck ! I also discovered today that a friend from another town has the same problem. I tried to modify the "indexU" file manually, but still no luck. Is this some kind of crazy bug from Yahoo? And if so, is there any chance I can fix it ? I'm starting to get angry here.

• Answer:

  Sounds like you enlarged a smaller photo, maybe during a cropping session and what you're seeing is the result of the close-up look at that picture. The way to rectify this would be to use the photo in it's original size or at least use it in a not so large version.