Whether you blog under your real name or under a pseudonym you may not be able to register the same username on every site you join. You can make it easy for others to locate you and your connections by using a specific graphic icon to identify yourself and your branding on all sites across the internet. So why not register your own Gravatar? Continue reading
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
Related posts found in this blog:
How to get your gravatar
Gravatars included in upcoming WordPress release
Got your gravatar yet?
MyWord or FacePress?
