LooseSuits Thread: I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

estarla — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:17:04

Shows how much I know--I've always had it on my site and was never aware there were issues.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

jensized — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:55:19

I just implemented it today, we'll see how it goes.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Michael — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 02:04:07

You know the new gravatar plugin makes it super easy to install. I always hated the old one where you had to modify the code.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

dreamweaver — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:25:51

I don't have any problem with it, and I just used the WP plugin that's on the Gravatar site where it says how to implement it. One of the arguments you can give it is a link to a picture that it will display if the commenter has no Gravatar (and most of my readers don't), so you don't get the blue squares. I really just used it for color and variety, and to help differentiate my replies from other's comments, and I haven't had any trouble with it being slow. I do wish people used it though.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

silverwing — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:52:12

I personally like them, but I took it off my site during the last redesign (around the time of the Gravatar Failure.) I may add it back into my new design. It does add a bit of personality to the site, a bit of 'color'.

I just wish WordPress had a better way of displaying it. (The version of a plugin I had seemed rather limiting on where it could go - unlike drupal's internal user pictures, where you just put it where you want it in the comments.)

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

superrats — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:53:26

I kind of like having different avatars for different sites, so the Gravatar thing didn't appeal to me. I use the Comvatar plug-in on my WP blog, as do a couple other blogs I frequent and it does allow Gravatars to be used if a user has one, but I never enabled the Gravatar functionality because when I set it up the Gravatar thing was down. Downside with Comvatar is I have to supply all the avatars from which people can pick. They can't upload their own.

I might enable it, just because some of the people who comment on my site do have a Gravatar or if they don't like the ones I've supplied they can use something they do like via their Gravatar.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

bethdean — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:34:30

I never experienced problems with Gravatar. I like when sites use it because it's easier for me to remember an icon and associate it with another commenter than their name.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Michael — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:57:35

Well you do have to admit that it was a fairly ambitious undertaking.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Griffith — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:57:21

I haven't removed it, but I intend on giving it a tweak on the next version of my blog. I'm going to make it so the gravatar is "invisible" in case the person doesn't have it.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Cas — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:36:41

@Josh - you're in fact responsible for me even bothering to update my gravatar and realising that the site was working again!

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

jensized — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:26:36

I couldn't ever get it to work.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Ozone42 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:04:06

I've always used it/never removed it as well. I just put something in place if it doesn't respond they get a little default picture.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

LorriM — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:02:40

I like gravatar, and use it all of the time, even throughout their on again off again problems.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Josh — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:09:48

I never removed it from my site, even when they were having trouble. Problem is, it seems that a lot of folks no longer even bother with it, so even though I have it enabled, I mostly see blue squares with "gravatar" plastered on it. I believe there's currently 2 of us who regularly comment at my blog that use it - me and Cas. Everyone else is the same blue square.

Now that your note has made me realize this, I'm probably going to disable it. Avatars = cool; blue squares = not so cool.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Vidar — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:48:52

they have problems now too. the badly cached gravatars are all over the place. I updated mine after much pain, because that ajaxy update thingy they got now would spit out "Application Error" all the time, and there was no contact info anywhere on the site to submit a bug report or something.
When I finally could update it, it worked for about a month and then decided to go back to the previous one on a whim, even though I had deleted it.

Also, there doesnt seem to be a way to implement them nicely (was there ever?) all the old hacks and plugins and stuff that used to work just fine now only work partially and in strange ways

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Cas — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:11:02

Much like everyone else I reckon, I used to support them, then things got really sticky so I deactivated it. When they got up and running I did go so far as to update my gravatar and was very impressed with their swanky new site and how easy it was to use compared to the previous incarnation. But I've never got around to enabling it again on my own site because 1) I'm lazy, 2) my current theme looks pants with them enabled and I just don't have the time or inclination to tweak it and 3) I don't trust them any more.

Like Scrivs said, they're going to find it hard to get people back because I doubt I'm alone in thinking "they had problems before, they could have them again".

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

elliothere — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:38:30

I used to support them, but like Scrivs said, it started slowing things way down so I took it out. I didn't know they had ever fixed it (have they?), so I never re-enabled it.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Scrivs — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:16:05

Everyone dropped it because they were down forever and it slowed sites down and made them look crappy. Going to be hard to get everyone back after that fiasco.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Cappuccino — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:08:59

I like it too! Add a little bit of the comment giver's flair to the post which is cool in my humble opinion.

I Miss Gravatar, Why Doesn't Anyone Use it?

Michael — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:54:25

Gravatar, the blog avatar system, went offline and then came back online somewhat recently. Why isn't anyone using it. I sort of miss seeing it on other sites. Gave the commentor a bit of personality.

Why don't you all switch? The Wordpress plugin is pretty sweet. Doesn't require you to modify the code anymore.