Gravatar, Avatar, Blavatar

Posted on January 24, 2010 by timethief

: Image via Wikipedia

I have a single image that I use as my Gravatar/Avatar, and Blavatar (favicon) on this blog, but I could use a different image for my Blavatar, if I wanted to. I’m considering which image to use and I’m accepting reader suggestions.

The definitions of gravatar/ avatar and blavatar maybe confusing to some as they certainly were to me, so let’s clear that up by going to the source. Let’s also find the instructions, and best practices for creating a gravatar/avatar and blavatar.

“A Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?”

“On WordPress.com, an Avatar is associated with the email address in your user profile. We use the Gravatar service on WordPress.com to power your user avatar and because Automattic owns both companies, we are able to link your accounts automatically between the two sites.

If you have set an Avatar, it will be displayed when you post to the forums, when you comment on blogs, and if one of your posts is displayed in any of the WordPress.com community features.”

“A Blavatar is a term we came up with by combining Blog + Avatar. A Blavatar is an image associated with a blog. It will be displayed as the favicon for your blog, which shows up in a browser’s address bar and on browser tabs. It will show up in the comments section of a blog if you send out any pingbacks. If anyone create a shortcut to your blog on their iPhone it will also be used as the icon there.”

Below are the best practices for successfully uploading your Gravatar, Avatar and/or Blavatar images:

(1) Choose an image that does not have any transparency in it and scales both up and down in size without losing definition. Prepare the image prior to uploading it and make sure it’s 512 x 512 pixels or larger so it will look the best in the widest range of uses.

(2) The image filetype has to be either PNG, GIF or JPG. Make sure the file name contains only letters and numbers – no special characters – and make sure all letters are in lowercase.

(3) Also make sure the image file name has an extension (Example – image.jpg)

(4) Note that there is a time delay while your gravatar image propagates. If you are experiencing problems then go to the gravatar site and read the FAQs as it contains common questions and answers to them

Gravatars included in upcoming WordPress release

Posted on March 5, 2008 by timethief

WordPress 2.5 which has yet to be released, will come with support for Gravatars (aka, Avatars) in the WordPress admin panel, which will also be revamped (test drive new WordPress admin panel).

Ryan Boren blogs:

…”Gravatar is the service used by default. get_avatar() is completely pluggable, however, so any service can be used. get_avatar() is built-in so that themes will have some fixed API on which they can rely, regardless of whatever avatar service is being used behind-the-scenes.” Read the full post

In this post Ronald Huereca demonstrates how Gravatars will be used with WordPress 2.5. If you are comfortable editing theme files take note of Connor Wilson’s tutorial on how to setup Gravatars on your WordPress blog without the use of a plugin.

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Got Your Gravatar Yet?

Posted on October 20, 2007 by timethief

Hat tips to Matt and Mark.

By now you have read the Announcement.

What is a gravatar?
A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an 80×80 pixel avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?

Stay up to date with The Gravatar Weblog

How do I get a gravatar?
Signing up for a gravatar.com account is FREE, and all that’s required is your email address. Once you’ve signed up you can upload your avatar image and soon after you’ll start seeing it on gravatar enabled weblogs! Sign up now!

How do I get gravatars on my weblog?
Setting up gravatars on your weblog is easy, you don’t even need an account! Plugins are available for leading weblog software, and our tutorials will have you running gravatars in no time. To request a gravatar from our servers, you simply add an image to your comments area with an “src” attribute that points to our gravatar image generator and includes an MD5 hash of the commenter’s email address. Since all gravatars are rated with an MPAA style rating, you can restrict your site to show only gravatars whose content you are comfortable with.

Learn more at this link.

WordPress.com Avatars

Posted on September 21, 2007 by timethief

When it comes to uploading avatar images some bases worth covering are:

1) Be sure your image one of these file types – jpg, jpeg, png, gif (Note that bmp’s cannot be uploaded due to size).

2) Do not use anything in the file name but letters and numbers. Use no spaces, no dashes, no underscores, or any type of special character or punctuation, except for the dot between the file name and the extension. Also make sure that the file name has an extension.

3) Choose an image that does not have any transparency in it.

4) Do not choose an animated gif image for use as an avatar.

5) Pre-size the image to be 128 pixels x 128 pixels square prior to trying to upload it.

Avatar Display

It’s also important to know that at this time avatars do not display on posts, regardless of what’s aid on the Your Profile page. Avatars only display on posts on WordPress.com tag pages, on support forum posts, on comments left on WordPress.com blogs (including your own), and provided that you are logged into WordPress when making the comments.

Lastly take note that there is a display time delay when you upload an avatar. Avatars appear first on the tag pages and in the support forums and then hours later they appear on comments.

Reference: What is an avatar?