How do I get those cute little pictures next to my comment?

This is my Gravatar. Those with sensitive stomach's had best avert their eyes

This is my Gravatar. Those with sensitive stomachs had best avert their eyes

Have you noticed that when some people comment, they get a little picture of themselves next to it?

What is a gravatar?

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?

Gravatar – Globally Recognized Avatars.

Basically, these guys provide a service that sends back your pretty little picture, so that people everywhere can know that it really is Geoff Matheson posting a comment on their blog because nobody else would possibly pretend to look like that. And Gravatar got bought out by Automattic who run Wordpress.com, so once you sign up for a Gravatar, you’ll see it popping up next to your comments all over the web. So go do that today!

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12 Comments

  1. Mark E
    Posted 21 January, 2009 6:48 pm at 6:48 pm | Permalink

    man…you married up! :) (so did I!)

  2. Geoff Matheson
    Posted 21 January, 2009 7:10 pm at 7:10 pm | Permalink

    Don't we all.

  3. becmatheson
    Posted 21 January, 2009 7:11 pm at 7:11 pm | Permalink

    The question is how do you format your blog theme to include them?

    Code please! :P

  4. Geoff Matheson
    Posted 21 January, 2009 7:21 pm at 7:21 pm | Permalink

    <?php if(function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar($comment, '40'); } ?>
    Check this page for full details, but basically that's it: the '40' is for how big you want the picture to be (in pixels)

  5. Geoff Matheson
    Posted 21 January, 2009 7:22 pm at 7:22 pm | Permalink

    And by “this page” I mean: http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2008/07...

  6. Mark_E
    Posted 21 January, 2009 9:59 pm at 9:59 pm | Permalink

    mmmmmm here we go…..

  7. Mark_E
    Posted 21 January, 2009 10:02 pm at 10:02 pm | Permalink

    there is five minutes of my life I will never get back…. thanks Geoff….

  8. Geoff Matheson
    Posted 21 January, 2009 10:06 pm at 10:06 pm | Permalink

    On the positive side Mark, now you can rest assured that nobody can go around the internet masquerading as everybody's favourite purple-loving pastor, posting comments.

  9. Mark_E
    Posted 22 January, 2009 4:41 pm at 4:41 pm | Permalink

    well there are plenty who want to….. :)

  10. Ulrika Spiel
    Posted 30 January, 2009 3:53 am at 3:53 am | Permalink

    THANK YOU! I have wondered for quite a while what those pictures were.. I thought that commentors just uploaded their picture with every blog post they wrote.. but then I couldn´t find anywhere to do such a thing. I then thought that the people with pictures must be really regular commentors and so they are then given the choice to upload their picture. NOW I KNOW :-) It´s a clever idea.. I think it really adds to the whole blogging culture/community feel.

  11. Alejandro Seguros Coche
    Posted 10 June, 2009 11:53 pm at 11:53 pm | Permalink

    I think that it is a great idea to have a picture next to your comment, so that people can see who is posting the comment.
    On the other side, some people might not want to be recognised in the internet.

  12. Florian eDarling
    Posted 10 July, 2009 5:39 pm at 5:39 pm | Permalink

    Nice article. It is a very good idea to have a picture next your comment.
    Thank you for the top.
    I think with it people will trust you and your content easier

    Florian