You get an avatar as an orange belt. The belt comes at 250 posts but for some reason you can't have an avatar right away. I'm not sure if it was 4 more posts (or so) or if it was the time that passed but after that I set up my avatar. I've seen some new guys with a avatar and custom text. I don't know how they do it.
No, I see guys with 5 posts that have a customer avatar and custom text. Somebody asked him how he did it and he just replied with a smile and said it was a secret. Edit: How did fight_song get custom text? Is it because he's been a member since 2002?
when i go to my user cp, there's a box that i can put i what i want for my title. there should be a board faq somewhere to answer all these questions though. there was one back in '02.