Dec

Get a “Global Avatar”

An “Avatar” (shortened to “AV” in some cyberspaces) is the tiny photo, cartoon character, or such, which represents you in forum and blog posts, comments, etc. They are also used in social networking sites. For example, here is my usual Avatar:
And here are a couple of funny ones I’ve collected: .

As you get more involved in online venues, it gets to be a bit of a chore to keep uploading your avatar picture over and over – and some sites require certain sizes for avatars, adding to the hassle. The alternate choice, not having a custom avatar and being represented by a generic anonymous picture isn’t very attractive.

“Gravatars” arise! Someone has invented a universal “Global Avatar” – a web service where you upload your preferred avatar image just once and it gets installed automatically on any blog, forum, or whatever which uses the service (and many do ).

OK, getting yourself a Gravatar is not the most important thing you’ll ever do online – but it’s quick and easy and kinda cool. I’ve implemented Gravatars here on my blog and tested it with my administrator AV.

So that’s why you’ll see the Gravatar image next to your comments, rather than this blog’s default anonymous avatar if you don’t have a Gravatar to call your own (so sad). Of course, if you do have a Gravatar, you’ll just see your favorite avatar – without having to do anything.