Arvixe is my server, is it possible that it is a problem on their end?

perhaps, could be anything at this point. did you check your error logs? like apache error and php error

its a shared server right now, don't have access to apache and php logs. However cpanel error log looks fine.

We need more details to help. Are images not working on a default installation of elgg with no other pugins installed? If so, then it could be permissions error on data folder. If extra plugins installed, deactivate them and check.. Also regularly run upgrade.php as you try to fix this problem

Ths happened with a fresh install of elgg with only the community_plugins plugin activated. the issues are only on the plugins part of the site

I'm not sure if the problems in both links are related

http://www.rostock3dprinter.com/plugins/72/1.0/test

http://www.rostock3dprinter.com/plugins/developer/admin

It looks like you have other plugins installed, deactivate then test whether you can upload an avatar

I am able to upload photos and have them shown correctly through the regular files on the main elgg site. I was able to upload an avatar even with the plugins installed. the issue is only with the communityplugins section of the site.

Do you want me to deactivate all the plugins that come pre-activated and try to upload to the community plugins mod?

Thanks michelle. They enable php 5.3 for me. It was showing I was on 5.2 even after I tried their fix and ran upgrade.php, I just wanted to make sure that wasn't the issue.

where is community_plugins plugin? Is that here on this community? Im not familiar with it...

It's on github, it is the same plugin that is used on this site for people to download plugins.