[Baba Wawa]

Lynne, thank you very much for your reply. I did as you suggested, and it was very educational.

From looking at the source code, it appears that the icons in question are part of the "forumhome_forumbit_level2_post" template. That seems quite clear -- the phrase "Begin template forumhome_forumbit_level2_post" appeared almost immediately before each appearance of the expression forum_old.gif or forum_new.gif.

When I opened up that template, however, I could not find any reference to either gif. My effort to replace the default gifs therefore remains stymied.