Comments on: Should Your Blog Use Gravatars? http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/ From Developer to Designer Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:04:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Kim Sawyer http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-330 Kim Sawyer Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:00:55 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-330 This is very interesting. My husband and I just started a blog and my husband is an advocate of gravatars. I opposed using them for a while. And I still will not use a picture of myself, I use a logo from our site. But based on what Adam said, I may have to rethink that too because personal security is very important to me. This is very interesting. My husband and I just started a blog and my husband is an advocate of gravatars. I opposed using them for a while. And I still will not use a picture of myself, I use a logo from our site. But based on what Adam said, I may have to rethink that too because personal security is very important to me.

]]> By: Johan http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-170 Johan Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:31:11 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-170 Hey there... Just stumbled on at the Gravatar.com, and created one... (No image uploaded yet) So thanks for a nice blog entry. :) On my own blog (not released yet, sorry) everybody can create a profile, and add a avatar to that. If it ain't filled out, it'll check for the Gravatar, and else It'll show a "noav.png". :) Guests have no choice... :p (It'll show the Gravatar if it exists else the noav.png) - Johan Hey there…

Just stumbled on at the Gravatar.com, and created one… (No image uploaded yet)
So thanks for a nice blog entry. :)

On my own blog (not released yet, sorry) everybody can create a profile, and add a avatar to that.
If it ain’t filled out, it’ll check for the Gravatar, and else It’ll show a “noav.png”. :)
Guests have no choice… :p (It’ll show the Gravatar if it exists else the noav.png)

- Johan

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-112 Jeremy Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:54:13 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-112 @Adam - Thanks for info. When I wrote the post I was thinking about how it relates to design and blog communities, not the security aspect. Your information will definitely lead me to do some heavy research into it before incorporating gravatars into this blog's custom theme. @Adam - Thanks for info. When I wrote the post I was thinking about how it relates to design and blog communities, not the security aspect. Your information will definitely lead me to do some heavy research into it before incorporating gravatars into this blog’s custom theme.

]]> By: Adam http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-111 Adam Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:58:18 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-111 I signed up for a gravatar account some time ago, but only recently has it become clear how TERRIBLE an idea that was. These days I try not to leave comments on gravatar-enabled blogs (excluding this post, because it's directly relevant) and I encourage others do the same. The reason is that Gravatar has one of the most egregious, exploitative and abusive approaches to personal information privacy I have ever encountered. I am a senior internet and privacy lawyer for a Fortune 100 company. Commenting on a gravatar-enabled site ensures that your e-mail address and activity is transmitted to Gravatar. However, Gravatar does not publish a privacy policy, they do not delete accounts and they do not respond to inquiries relating to personal information. The only reason they can get away with this is because they do not present any information about themselves on their site so it is very difficult for the average user to understand exactly what they are getting into. There is no operator listed on their site, but the domain is listed as owned by GoDaddy.com, which is a Arizona corporation. Gravatar's activities are clearly in violation of the European Union Directive on Data Protection, but GoDaddy.com, Inc. (if they are the operator of Gravatar) are located in Arizona and US privacy laws are not as developed as those in many other parts of the world. I don't believe any blogger should add gravatar to their blog, nor should any user sign up to a gravatar account. It is an extremely, extremely serious risk to the protection of your personal information online. I signed up for a gravatar account some time ago, but only recently has it become clear how TERRIBLE an idea that was.

These days I try not to leave comments on gravatar-enabled blogs (excluding this post, because it’s directly relevant) and I encourage others do the same.

The reason is that Gravatar has one of the most egregious, exploitative and abusive approaches to personal information privacy I have ever encountered. I am a senior internet and privacy lawyer for a Fortune 100 company.

Commenting on a gravatar-enabled site ensures that your e-mail address and activity is transmitted to Gravatar. However, Gravatar does not publish a privacy policy, they do not delete accounts and they do not respond to inquiries relating to personal information.

The only reason they can get away with this is because they do not present any information about themselves on their site so it is very difficult for the average user to understand exactly what they are getting into. There is no operator listed on their site, but the domain is listed as owned by GoDaddy.com, which is a Arizona corporation.

Gravatar’s activities are clearly in violation of the European Union Directive on Data Protection, but GoDaddy.com, Inc. (if they are the operator of Gravatar) are located in Arizona and US privacy laws are not as developed as those in many other parts of the world.

I don’t believe any blogger should add gravatar to their blog, nor should any user sign up to a gravatar account. It is an extremely, extremely serious risk to the protection of your personal information online.

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-110 Jeremy Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:42:53 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-110 @RMK - I'm totally with you on that professional platform angle. I have the same feeling about the mybloglog sidebar widget thing also. Just too much clutter and really draws away from the theme. Ever since writing this post I've been more observant of other blogger's gravatar use and when I get around to doing my own custom theme for this site I will make the gravatars very small, like how this theme does it. I see the sites with the full 80x80 size and it's just too big and distracting. Thanks for the comment and LOL about your unintended gravatar use. :) @RMK - I’m totally with you on that professional platform angle. I have the same feeling about the mybloglog sidebar widget thing also. Just too much clutter and really draws away from the theme.

Ever since writing this post I’ve been more observant of other blogger’s gravatar use and when I get around to doing my own custom theme for this site I will make the gravatars very small, like how this theme does it. I see the sites with the full 80×80 size and it’s just too big and distracting.

Thanks for the comment and LOL about your unintended gravatar use. :)

]]> By: RMK http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-109 RMK Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:46:11 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-109 How ironic, I have a gravatar attached to this email adress ;) ! How ironic, I have a gravatar attached to this email adress ;) !

]]> By: RMK http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-108 RMK Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:45:37 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-108 Few reasons why I don't (and probably won't use gravatars): - You design a blog/site with a color scheme. Sometimes other people's color choices just dont fit to your layout - you mentionned the distracting factor, I'll say more : it could easily be damn ugly, and more than distracting. If you want to do a nice use of this colored squares, you're layout should really be minimal (think flickr etc.). I don't want my site/blog, that I use as a professional platform - not only for blogging - to be a kind of add space for other people, and I don't want it to look like a forum/bbs/myspace thingie. - The name. Maybe it sounds cool in english, but for other languages (let's say french - well, that's where I'm born - , spanish, japanese - that's where I live) it just sounds like you're trying to insult someone (yes I'm exagerating a bit for dramatic purpose, but you get the idea). Few reasons why I don’t (and probably won’t use gravatars):

- You design a blog/site with a color scheme. Sometimes other people’s color choices just dont fit to your layout - you mentionned the distracting factor, I’ll say more : it could easily be damn ugly, and more than distracting. If you want to do a nice use of this colored squares, you’re layout should really be minimal (think flickr etc.).
I don’t want my site/blog, that I use as a professional platform - not only for blogging - to be a kind of add space for other people, and I don’t want it to look like a forum/bbs/myspace thingie.

- The name. Maybe it sounds cool in english, but for other languages (let’s say french - well, that’s where I’m born - , spanish, japanese - that’s where I live) it just sounds like you’re trying to insult someone (yes I’m exagerating a bit for dramatic purpose, but you get the idea).

]]> By: Nick | PTO http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-65 Nick | PTO Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:59:04 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-65 Thanks for your thoughts, Jeremy. I have some other sites launching this year, so I don't want to associate myself purely with PTO. Sxipper autofills "Nick | PTO" in the name field after I used it the first time -- to be honest I hadn't given it as much thought as it probably deserves! Re: migration from Yahoo to Gmail. Check out IzyMail -- if I understand it correctly, it should help you forward Yahoo mail without needing to upgrade: http://v3.izymail.com/gmailconfig.aspx Thanks for your thoughts, Jeremy. I have some other sites launching this year, so I don’t want to associate myself purely with PTO. Sxipper autofills “Nick | PTO” in the name field after I used it the first time — to be honest I hadn’t given it as much thought as it probably deserves!

Re: migration from Yahoo to Gmail. Check out IzyMail — if I understand it correctly, it should help you forward Yahoo mail without needing to upgrade: http://v3.izymail.com/gmailconfig.aspx

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-63 Jeremy Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:28:13 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-63 @David - I think most of your gravatar concerns can be fixed with a design solution. Perhaps use scaled down gravatars for your commenters like this theme does, but have your replies show your larger, branded gravatar like your site does now. It lets your blog benefit from gravatars, but makes comments shorter, keeps the focus on your brand and makes your replies easy to find. Win Win Win. Also maybe let people comment from the top of comments instead of the bottom. I've never seen it done, but who says that it can't work. About controlling gravatar images. I know Gravatar implements a rating system, similar to how movies are rated. You can choose to only show G-rated gravatars. Now what's stopping someone from putting a X-rated gravatar and saying its G-rated, I'm not sure. But you don't have control over what people say in your comments either, you can just delete it if its inappropriate. @Nick - I believe PTO's gravatar is really up to how want PTO to be associated with yourself. Personally, I would use PTO's logo as your gravatar for a few reasons. First, you appear to be trying to brand PTO whenever you post because you comment as "Nick | PTO". Second, PTO is a focused blog. Its purpose is productivity. You want to set yourself up as a prime resource for productivity-related things. Getting PTO's logo to become more noticeable can help with that. Third, PTO has a very distinctive feel to it. The cartoonish graphics are easily recognizable. If I were to see a gravatar of a wide-eyed cat playing with yarn, I could immediately associate that with PTO. Again, its really on how you want people to perceive you and PTO. Do you want people to associate Nick with PTO? Or do you want people to associate PTO with Nick? Answer that question and that should determine which gravatar to use. BTW, I was going to set up <a href="http://putthingsoff.com/index.php/inbox-heaven/" rel="nofollow">Inbox Heaven</a>, but was going to have to pay Yahoo $20 to get POP access just so I can not use Yahoo anymore. So I guess I'll put off heaven until it becomes to much to manage the way I do it now. @David - I think most of your gravatar concerns can be fixed with a design solution. Perhaps use scaled down gravatars for your commenters like this theme does, but have your replies show your larger, branded gravatar like your site does now. It lets your blog benefit from gravatars, but makes comments shorter, keeps the focus on your brand and makes your replies easy to find. Win Win Win.
Also maybe let people comment from the top of comments instead of the bottom. I’ve never seen it done, but who says that it can’t work.
About controlling gravatar images. I know Gravatar implements a rating system, similar to how movies are rated. You can choose to only show G-rated gravatars. Now what’s stopping someone from putting a X-rated gravatar and saying its G-rated, I’m not sure. But you don’t have control over what people say in your comments either, you can just delete it if its inappropriate.

@Nick - I believe PTO’s gravatar is really up to how want PTO to be associated with yourself. Personally, I would use PTO’s logo as your gravatar for a few reasons.
First, you appear to be trying to brand PTO whenever you post because you comment as “Nick | PTO”.
Second, PTO is a focused blog. Its purpose is productivity. You want to set yourself up as a prime resource for productivity-related things. Getting PTO’s logo to become more noticeable can help with that.
Third, PTO has a very distinctive feel to it. The cartoonish graphics are easily recognizable. If I were to see a gravatar of a wide-eyed cat playing with yarn, I could immediately associate that with PTO.
Again, its really on how you want people to perceive you and PTO. Do you want people to associate Nick with PTO? Or do you want people to associate PTO with Nick? Answer that question and that should determine which gravatar to use.

BTW, I was going to set up Inbox Heaven, but was going to have to pay Yahoo $20 to get POP access just so I can not use Yahoo anymore. So I guess I’ll put off heaven until it becomes to much to manage the way I do it now.

]]> By: Nick | PTO http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/blogging/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-60 Nick | PTO Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:19:18 +0000 http://www.jeremyadamdavis.com/2008/02/21/should-your-blog-use-gravatars/#comment-60 Interesting post, Jeremy! Thanks for the mention. I really like Gravatars -- it makes comments much more human and readable. I've always felt that attaching your image to your comments removes some of the anonymity offered by the web, and gives credit and weight to your comment. Do you think I should be using the PTO logo instead of my image for my Gravatar, then? Interesting post, Jeremy! Thanks for the mention.

I really like Gravatars — it makes comments much more human and readable. I’ve always felt that attaching your image to your comments removes some of the anonymity offered by the web, and gives credit and weight to your comment.

Do you think I should be using the PTO logo instead of my image for my Gravatar, then?

]]>