Gen. Skobelev said:
No, that's how you get the custom avatar. I guess it's just enough time must have passed.
No it is not. I guess it's 550 days before it's enabled.
For the record, I have far less than 3000 posts and have been a member for far longer than 550 days and do have this option so the 550 day hypothesis is likely (then again it could be any other number of days up to however many I've been here

). I still don't have the ability to get a custom avatar yet and I doubt I ever will if 3000 posts are required (though I'd really love to use blue emu's old UN flag one)
edit - I just realized I actually joined these forums nearly a year
before blue emu did

. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I have quite clearly contributed far far less, however.