On my import I lost a lot of avatars too but come to think about it, I did not import on the same server.
I forget. Are avatars stored in a file system or the database in vBulletin?
This might be the first thing I really don't like about XF... but for now I'll say that it's because I haven't learned it yet.
For example: Looking at our forum section General CL Chat. It should only be viewable by the Administrative team. (note: General CL Chat is one that is not showing up)
So I go to AdminCP > Display Node Tree > Node Permissions > General CL Chat > Administrative
Everything is listed as Inherit.
So I would want to check on the User Group Permissions for Administrative?
The permissions seem complicated at first but once you realise how they work, it's very easy.
Essentially Default means no or not set, Allow means yes and Deny means Never.
Permissions are cumulative so just keep adding members to each group with the permissions you want to grant them.
So set your basic permissions for the registered user group.
Then any additional groups just set the permissions which are different and their total permission set will be the combination of all groups.
Node permissions have one other thing called Revoke.
You can use that for example to remove posting permissions for a particular group from one node.