Can we synchronize our avatars with Gravatar?

[firstPerson]

Gravatar is getting really popular, may sites like stackoverflow or github have incorporated the avatars. It would be nice to have a consistent avatar throughout all forums and sites.

[deceptikon]

As an avid avatar junkie, why would you want to have the same avatar on different forums? ;)

Just kidding, it's a nice idea. I'd actually never heard of Gravatar though, so I'd have to look into it. There's also the niggling worry about using plugins to off-site storage that may disappear in the future. It's fairly safe to say Facebook will be around a while (for our Facebook login), but having not even heard of Gravatar before there's a little doubt in my mind about its pervasiveness.

[pritaeas]

Gravatar is pretty old (pre-dating Fb). If you open their url with your email md5'ed then you get the image belonging to that address.

[cereal]

Yup, it's pretty simple:

<?php
    function gravatar($email,$size = 75)
    {
        $avatar = md5(strtolower(trim($email)));
        return '<img class="avatar" src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/' .$avatar.'.jpg?d=identicon&s='.$size.'" alt="avatar" />';
    }

    echo gravatar('[e-mail]');
?>

It returns an image even if there's no registration there.

[deceptikon]

Yup, it's pretty simple:

I didn't suggest otherwise. It's a smidge more complicated because we'd still want to support local avatars, but I'd almost call such a feature trivial to implement...almost. ;)

My concern had more to do with whether supporting Gravatar would be both sufficiently beneficial as well as likely to continue to be beneficial going forward.

[diafol]

I like Gravatar. Worked well on Disqus.

[Ancient Dragon]

I have mixed emotions about it. What if I don't want the same avatar on all web sites that I visit?

[~s.o.s~]

I have mixed emotions about it. What if I don't want the same avatar on all web sites that I visit?

Then maybe provide an option to override the gravatar image? But IMO this seems too much effort for something not too significant, especially when there are more important things to be tackled (chat, spell checker etc.). :)

[<M/>]

I will be honest, Gravatar is great... but i don't value it very much. I guess i agree with AD on some aspects.

[Dani]

At first I was really against Gravatar because I had actually contemplated implementing it at the same time as Facebook integration but decided against it, because it seemed like just a silly third-party novelty with no added value.

However, a handful of other big sites use it, and I was a bit bored tonight, so I've caved. Let's see who uses it aside from LastMitch.

[LastMitch]

@Dani

However, a handful of other big sites use it, and I was a bit bored tonight, so I've caved. Let's see who uses it aside from LastMitch.

Can you switch the old one back with the question mark? I feel that's more like Daniweb style. A question mark on the profile. Look's nice more original. Can you attach the image with the question mark on it so I can upload it by myself. I'll little embrassed because I never actually up used much of the features on the profile section.

[Dani]

Before it had nothing. Why not just upload an avatar?

[LastMitch]

Before it had nothing. Why not just upload an avatar?

I haven't thought about it yet. Well I'll keep the new for now. It's looks nice. You did a good job!

[firstPerson]

Awesome, thanks dani