Well i can see both my Avatar and yours so i assume the issue is with a setting at your end, if you go to Control Panel-> My Options-> Change Options-> and scroll down that page to see if the "Show Avatar" box is checked?
If it is then i can only suggest you post this issue in the "Bug" forum at the top of the page and see if Raz knows what to do.
If it is not then click that box and hit "Update Options" at the bottom.
One more thing maybe you need to refresh the page to see the new settings take effect?
As for the New Posts issue, what i do is click "mark forums as read" at the foot of the main forums page when i leave the forums, in this way only new posts show when i return.