Raijinn has been notified by The Jurymen that some people can only post new topics and not reply. That is related to the currently "boned" ranks.
The no Avatar issue... Jeffers is correct. If you set one before they were locked then lucky you... if not they probably won't be re-enabled so...
And before you start with the "but you have an avatar! no fair!" those with avatars will most likely have them reset to blank when the issue is solved.