Since the re-design of Nicole’s blog, Tales from Den Haag Side  we have been using a plugin to display avatars of people contributing to the comment section.  A few people have been asking Nicole how to get their picture into the comments section of the blog and she has asked me to write a post explaining the process. 

In computing terms avatars are representations of you.  They started mainly in discussion forums back in the days of green screens, Amstrad computers and Sinclair C5’s.  The kind people over at Gravatar have designed a process whereby you can upload your photo to one site and it will be recognised by all blogs and websites using the Gravatar plugin.  Gravatar stands for Globally recognized avatar.  Signing up is free, and Nicole likes to remind me that free things are good!

If you are a regular contributor to the comment section of Nicole’s blog you will know that it asks for an email address.  This serves two purposes:

1. To try to stop spam getting posted in the comments.

2. It is checked against Gravatar’s database to see if it has an associated picture with that email address.

If Gravatar cannot make a match to the email, it then displays a default picture.  In the case of denhaagside, it is a little daisy.  If you would like your image to appear next to your comments in Nicole’s – or any- blog (and you know you do, especially you, Summer!), then go to Gravatar and sign up.  All they need is your email address and a photo to upload to the Gravatar site.  Once you have given Gravatar your email address they will send you an email to confirm that it is really yours.  You will then be able to upload your picture.  Gravatar allows you to crop the image once you upload it (perfect for editing out that ‘ex’ in the photo that you look great in!

Once you have your avatar associated with Gravatar open up Tales from Den Haag Side and look through any of the comments you have made.  Or make a new comment! You will see your picture beside your comment!