After some recent site maintenance here, you may have noticed that the comments look a bit different, and that some people’s comments have a little picture next to them. This little picture is called a gravatar (globally recognised avatar), and you can have one too. Once you set it up, you will find that it works in all sorts of places, not just this blog.
Here’s how to do it:
- Visit gravatar.com and pick a sign up link.
- Provide a valid email address; the same one you provide when adding comments to blogs. I have not received any spam as a result of doing this.
- You’ll be sent a confirmation email; click on the link in that and follow the prompts to set your password and so on.
- Choose your gravatar image from your hard drive, the internet, a webcam or a previously uploaded image. You can point to any size photo and will be prompted to select a cropped square area to display.
That’s it, although you can manage your account to provide multiple email addresses and images if you wish. Wait 5 or 10 minutes, then check out this or other blogs and web locations where you have made comments in the past. Those blogs with layouts that support gravatars should now display the picture that you associated with the email address you supplied when you made your comment. If the image doesn’t show up, do a reload/refresh and/or clear your browser’s cache and try again.
I tried to promote the use of gravatars on my blog as well, and most folks promptly ignored it. I like being able to quickly find my comments or those of someone else. Others seem not to mind the random squinty faces that get assigned.
Steve, Interesting concept, gravatars. I’m going to try it out. Thanks for sharing as always.
Yours is working now, Brian. My switch to NZ black doesn’t seem to have “taken”, though, even after 24 hours and a cache cleanup.
Mine seemed to take effect soon after I set it up