Hello Emma!
I will try to answer your questions the best I can.
1.) Our forum system is still unable to host pictures on posts as the moment (it's on our to-do list), so for now your best bet is using a free online photo/picture hosting site. You have a couple to choose from, I personally prefer Photobucket (
http://s86.photobucket.com/ ) since it's like a little online album where you can upload a bunch of pictures in one place, plus you can make your album private and only let people see the photo you link in your post on CAA. The downside is that, naturally, you need to make an account.
For a less committing method, you can use a one shot site like Tinypic (
http://tinypic.com/ ) where you can upload one image at a time and link them. The downside of this is if you don't save your link, it's hard to find your image again. :\
If you wanted to know more about stuff like using [img] tags and whatnot, please let me know!
2.) To send private messages, you have several options. Firstly, the easiest and fastest way is to click on the cute little PM button under a member's username on their post. Let's say you wanted to PM me. All you would need to do is click on the PM button under my username on this post and viola! The downside(or upside) to this method is that you get their post quoted in your PM. (you can erase this if you want to though).
The second method is by simply clicking on someone's username, going to their profile, and in the lower left of their profile, you will see the link "send private message" and your private messaging panel will open up.
The third and most tedious, but also the most helpful on to know is the method of opening your "User Control Panel" at the top left of your screen on the forum (underneath the banner). Then, once in your control panel, click over to the Private messages tab. In the top box, like with email, you need to put a member's name that you want to send your message to. Then put in a subject in the Subject line (the PM will not send without a subject). Then the big box below that is where you put your message.
Once you're done typing your message, you can either click "Preview" to see how your message is going to look. Or you can click Submit and send your message. If you have missed any step, a pop up window will tell you. XD
(at this point, don't worry about "load draft" or "save draft")
Okie dokie? Pretty simple, right? If you have any further questions, try out you're newly learned skills and send me a PM!
3.) I was never a huge Mario fan (Sonic the Hedgehog is my childhood hero!), but a classic Mario villain I liked was Bowser.