Can i use a different picture for my profile or do i have to use the stupid avatar?

you can use a different picture

If you want a photo/custom picture as your avatar you need to make a yahoo 360 account. http://360.yahoo.com/login.html?.done=http://360.yahoo.com/ The photo/image needs to be saved on your computer as a jpg file, don't worry about the size to much yahoo will adapt it. Then go to the following 4 steps. below 1> Go to your 360 page then click "my page” (top of page). 2> Click "edit personal photo" (on the left above photo window). 3> Click “browse” choose the photo from your photos click "save", Set as primary and "save". 4> Go to your “edit my profile” http://answers.yahoo.com/my/my_edit click “use my yahoo 360 picture” scroll down and press "preview", and then "OK" in the next screen. And your done. Yahoo engineers are still working on improvements throughout all yahoo sites and some avatars may be slow to show (it could even be a day or so) so try to be patient. ©

You CAN use a picture of yourself, or another picture. To do so, you have to activate your 360 profile. To do that, go to your Yahoo! Answers profile, and then click on the button that says "My 360 profile" in blue letters. It is to the right of your ID. Once you set up the profile, you can click on the button that reads "Edit Personal Photos". That takes you to a page, where you can upload an image you wish to use as your primary photo. After you have added the image, you can set it as your primary. Then, go to your Yahoo! Answers profile, and then click the button that reads "Edit My Info". You will see three boxes down near the bottom toolbar on the page, and the middle one reads "Use my Yahoo! 360 Picture". Check the circle next to it, and then scroll down and save your profile. It will take a short period of time for the picture to process, so be patient. Hope this helped! Good luck!