I’ve noticed some of the profiles have custom made avatars…
is this option only for paying members ?
The custom avatars were available for a limited time only during a fund-raiser for a new server. A donation to iCM of a certain size would get you a custom avatar in return. That was way back in the v.1.0 days. The site was really slow, but nobody had the money to get a new server, fortunately this “crowdfunding” round solved that.
The avatars were designed by Piet, who’s now only loosely associated with iCM, but maybe you can persuade him…? 