Why ?

When I look I see your avatar as animated. It is a old man taking of his hat and spitting something white out of his mouth.
Perhaps it is your browser???? Do you have newest version?
I see it ok both with Firefox and Internet explorer.

I think there is nothing wrong with your avatar.
About the smilies: maybe you notice that the Expat-Blog has a new design and new features.
There are some bugs to take care of but it will be just fine in some time.

And Maro18: that old man is the famous Tommy Cooper who was an comedian and magician.
Famous in Britain but also in Netherlands and who knows where else.

my 2 cents ... have you tried ctrl +F5 ? (of course it won't work but it's worth a try)

could you remind us with browser and version you're using ?

thanks,

Julien

I have the offline problem too. It doesn't bother me though as I don't particularly want people to know when I am online.

The smilies are indeed gone, but that seems more like a temporary bug than anything else.

Smileys appear to have been fixed, they're normal here in Brazil using Chrome. The animated avatar is just fine too. Not sure about online status yet.

Cheers

The smiley and tool bar work for me with one exception. When I use it in a "FULL REPLY" NOT "QUICK POST" the "Smileys, Link and Image" toolbar boxes get cut off at the first row. See attached images. I have to post this in a QUICK POST because the dialog box gets cut off.

Chrome v31.0.1650.63
OS X 10.9.1
15" Display 1680x1050

AS SEEN FROM FULL REPLY

AS SEEN FROM QUICK POST

It's a bug with internet explorer. We've identified it, and the patch will be online tomorrow morning

I'm using Chrome.