Gravatars

For those of you that have never heard of a "Gravatar" they are a way to create a universal avatar.

Many sites allow you to, with one click, use a Gravatar for an avatar instead of uploading one or using one by picking up a link. 

If you use a gavatar instead of an avatar, to change your avatar on all sites you visit that have this feature you would simply go into https://en.gravatar.com change your image on there and it will then change on all sites you have clicked to use a gravatar.

At the moment not many message board systems have this feature but there is also another way you can use a gravatar image.

This is by using it as an image in your post signatures.   When you change that on the gravatar site it will change in all posts on all boards that you have used that gravatar link on.

How to generate a Gravatar image.

1)  Go to https://en.gravatar.com and register with your main email address.

2)  Upload the image you are going to want to use as an avatar on sites that allow this feature.  It is best to use an image about 200 x 200px so that whatever size a system allows an avatar it will show up as a clear image.  You can upload as many images as you wish which allows you to swap between them.

3) Click to choose the image you wish to use as a present gravatar.

Using a gravatar as an Avatar.

To use a gravatar as an avatar on systems that don't have the actual feature for gravatar is a little complicated due to the fact that you can't just right click on the image to pick up the url.  You have to generate the url yourself.


1)  To generate the url for to use as an avatar.  Go to http://www.asaph.org/p/gravatar.html  - This is a free online generator.

2)  Add your email address and then click "Submit".

3)  Pick the url up that it gives you.

When you use the basic url you will get an image 80px x 80px - This is the basic url for mine..

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6e6bcbf1cd7512dd7d90220ecba46475.jpg

If I wanted to say use one 125px I would add ?s=125 just before .jpg thereby making the url

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6e6bcbf1cd7512dd7d90220ecba46475?s=125.jpg

If you are wanting to use your gravatar image as your avatar on various systems I have checked a few out and how to use it when adding an avatar.

Tapatalk:  In the dropdown menu choose Gravatar and add your email address that you have used for your gravatar image.

Zetaboard:  Choose the field "Url to image" - add the gravatar url you would have converted on http://www.asaph.org/p/gravatar.html along with the size you want the image to be at the end of the url - I will look something like this http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6e6bcbf1cd7512dd7d90220ecba46475?s=125.jpg

Proboards: In the 3rd box along click "Upload/Link Delete" then in the field as is Zetaboard above.  Don't forget to then also click "Save Avatar"

Forumotion:  Unfortunately Forumotion doesn't recognise the gravatar url with the chosen size on the end of the url.  It will only accept the basic url as will be similar to - http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6e6bcbf1cd7512dd7d90220ecba46475.jpg - which will only give an image 80px x 80px

Once you have added your gravatar as your avatar on all sites you visit when you ever want to change it you simply change it on the Gravatar main site.

Footnote:  I have made a suggestion to Forumotion that they allow resized gravatar urls.  I have no idea how much notice they take of suggestions though.

Using a gravatar within a signature.

The draw back for this is that all gravatars are square.

To use a gravatar as a signature image is a bit more complicated due to the fact that you can't just right click on the image to pick up the url.  You have to generate the url yourself.

1)  Add a second email address to your https://en.gravatar.com account.  I would suggest you create a new email address or use an address that you no longer actually use but have sitting around. Making sure that you still have access to that email address as you will have to activate it.

2)  That address will be added to your account and you will be able to then click on it and choose the image you will want to use in your siggy.

3)  Now you need to generate the url for that to use in your siggy.  Go to http://www.asaph.org/p/gravatar.html  - This is a free online generator.

4)  Add your email address and then click "Submit" - You can play with adding the size you want the gravatar to show or you can simply use the basic url.

5)  Pick the url up and add it to your siggy as you would any other image.

When you use the basic url you will get an image 80px x 80px - This is the basic url for mine..

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6e6bcbf1cd7512dd7d90220ecba46475.jpg

If I wanted to say use one 125px I would add ?s=125 just before .jpg thereby making the url

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6e6bcbf1cd7512dd7d90220ecba46475?s=125.jpg

To see my gravatar signature image go to this post on Martha's site and you will see my gravatar signature in the lead post http://spherical.forumotion.com/t124-i-m-here

Good to know.

So far I have 3 different emails on my account which means I have 3 different ways to display images.







You don't have to delete images as you add new either. You just click to choose whichever one you want to use at that time.

Cool.