I've been seeing increasing usage of GRAvatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) in blogs lately, but have shied away from incorporating it into Blogography because most implementations I've seen have totally destroyed the page layout. But now Neil's gone and done it, and his layout was preserved just fine, so I thought I'd go ahead and try it.
Gravatar (not to be confused with the Atari video game Gravitar) is a global repository for "avatars" (little pictures that identify you to others online) which can be used in all kinds of web environments, including blog comments. Since Blogography is now Gravatar enabled, any comments you leave will display your avatar, assuming you have signed up for a free Gravatar account and use the same email address you signed up with (but don't worry, your email address is private and will never be displayed here).
Each avatar you upload to your account is individually reviewed by the Gravatar staff, and given a rating of G, PG, R, or X. This allows implementations to be safely restricted for the intended audience (I've set the rating here to be "PG" or lower). The avatar I uploaded was reviewed and rated "G" (hah!) within 20 minutes. You can see how Gravatar works by following the "comments" link on this entry.
I love comments! However, all comments are moderated, and won't appear until approved. Are you an abusive troll with nothing to contribute? Don't bother. Selling something? Don't bother. Spam linking? Don't bother.
PLEASE NOTE: My comment-spam protection requires JavaScript... if you have it turned off or are using a mobile device without JavaScript, commenting won't work. Sorry.
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And here’s how your avatar will be displayed if you have signed up for a free Gravatar.com account.
Hmmm.. does mine work?
ps: How do you “gravitar enable” your blog?
D’oh! Your avatar is so cool! A stamp… brilliant! Now I’m going to have to come up with something cool as well!
As for Gravatar-Enabling: They provide a plug-in for it on the gravatar.com site. Just be sure that you get the version (the second one) or else you won’t be able to style it with your CSS template!
Must try, me too.
I will hold off the introduction of gravatars over at “my place”, but that could very well change if more people commented my blog posts.
Does mine work??
Woo, gravataration!
It does work!!
Dude! You’re a Smurf!!
Hey you rate number 47 in the top avatar enabled pages!
http://www.gravatar.com/popular.php
If you had an avatar, I’d be #23! 🙂
But not any Smurf – Pappa Smurf. He was the King of the Smurfs.
Bleh! Even with Kazza, I’m now mired at #46. I need more Smurfs.
Smurfs rule the world
Only if by “world” you mean “Gascoinia”!
Thanks for linking to me in the Gravatar story —
“Gravatar (not to be confused with the Atari video game Gravitar” — much appreciated. I was searching the web for Gravitar stuff and found your site.
best,
Dan Coogan
http://www.cooganphoto.com/gravitar
No problem. It seemed only logical, since yours is pretty much the definitive Gravitar site on the web!