change photo avatar thing that others see on Yahoo?

The Yahoo Profile was removed around 1/1/2015. They are supposed to move most of the features to Account Info under the Gear icon. They still have not done so. Right now you aren't able to edit your profile picture, nickname, gender, or date of birth from within your account settings.

You can change the "Yahoo Answers" nickname. Click on your avatar/name in the left column; click on edit preferences; and click on "edit" after the nickname. A popup will open allowing you to change the name.

There is still no update as of 3/2/2016. It is beginning to look like they may never update Account Info. Yahoo is currently trying to decide which sites to close. Yahoo Answers is one of the possibilities. My avatar actually disappeared and no one at Yahoo seems to know how to get it back.

😸 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 😸

𝗕𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿

3/2/2016

No one can add or change a profile photo. Yahoo disabled that capability over a year ago and have not yet reinstated it.

You can't. Avatars and the editing of nicknames, birthdates and other information have been disabled. They are making changes to profiles. No one knows when or if they will be enabled again.