Can anyone who is slightly less retarded than I am tell me why I can't get my avatar to work?

I've tried both uploading from my computer and linking from a website. It works as a profile picture too.

I get the following error message when I try to upload from my computer:

Warning: fopen(./images/u_avatars/avatar700_1.gif) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in [path]/includes/class_dm_userpic.php on line 373

 

do .gif's even work?

 

For me there's a hyperlink where my avatar should be that says 'Tinder's Avatar', clicking on it takes you to the image. Which is a little weird.

It's not even a gif - it's a jpg. I have no idea where that is coming from. Also, they do work, I've seen some people with them.