In discussion threads, the avatars (pics) are resized to 90px (pixels) wide on desktop browsers and smaller at more mobile-friendly widths, while the circle itself is added via CSS (specifically, the border-radius property). There doesn't seem to be a limit on the width and height, but there is a maximum file size of 1 MB. I'd say keep it under 200x200 and pretend there's a circle over it that touches all four sides.
Hm. Looks like I'm going to have to update my avatar. But I like the new, expanded set of emoji!
As a front-end web developer, I'm instinctively distrustful of WYSIWYGs, so I'll need a little time to get used to not having BBCode.
That said, the site looks good!
And where they don't have a duopoly, they put the news on a subchannel, correct?
At least, that's how it is for WCVB and WMUR (which are technically a duopoly but serve different parts of the Boston DMA).