Two years ago, I posted about Gravatar. Seeing that the great A to Z challenge is starting this Friday (even though I’m not participating), I thought it would be a good time to revive this old post and share again. It might help with growing blogging relationships.
Do you know someone who is bad with names but good with faces? Or maybe you’re one of those people?
If the answer is “No” on both accounts, well, let me introduce myself. My name is Loni. I remember faces, not names.
Google is amazing. They have connected so many different services, your profile (and its picture) is available through several venues without any effort on your part. The result is you have a nice little picture when you comment on a Blogger blog.
But what if you’re not commenting on a Blogger blog? What if it’s WordPress? Or Typepad? Depending on the platform and settings, your avatar may vary. It might be a fractal design, or it might be something else.
There is a service called Gravatar that is designed to help out. The Globally Recognized Avatar identifies your email address and populates the generic avatar with your image of choice. Now people like me, who recognize faces and not names, can have that extra little helper to build relationships and connections online. And isn’t that what we all want? To connect?
I hope I see your face around here more often!
Are you a person who remembers names well? Do you remember people better when you have a picture to pair with them? Have you heard of Gravatar before?
I think I use the same profile pic everywhere. I read that when I started that it was a good idea to keep them uniform. I like to see what someone looks like, though the pictures people choose to represent themselves says a lot too.
AGREED! I’ve posted on this once ‘er twice too. So many people are reluctant to do it though. It’s free! It’s easy! It’s trusted and run by WordPress.com.
My significant other is someone who remembers faces, but not names. I tend to be the other way around.
I haven’t heard of Gravatar before. I’ll have to go check it out.
I’ll have to check that out Loni. I’m usually a green pattern on WordPress and my face on eblogger. Have a great week!
I need to do that so I’m nut just another colorful square.
And I struggle to remember names.
I haven’t heard of Gravatar, but I must have set it up somewhere along the line. As a journalist, I’m pretty good with names, but it’s always nice to see the face as well. Makes the interaction more personal.
Faces I recognize way more than names too. That’s why the cat gives many nicknames, as then he remembers those.
I don’t remember names OR faces. Just yesterday someone asked me to email them a file and after he walked away I realized I forgot his name and didn’t know who to send it to. Too embarrassed to go ask him, I guessed and moments later realized I had sent it to the wrong person.
Also, I’m writing this at work and Gravatar pictures don’t show up, so I don’t remember if I have one or not. :-/
I’m bad with both faces and names. Until I’ve seen a person a few times and heard their names I don’t make good associations. I like it when I’m somewhere and people are wearing name tags. We should all have name tags whenever we’re out in public 🙂
I’m pretty sure I have my Gravatar on my comments. I don’t pay that much attention.
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
I remember faces before names. I have to hope I see them again soon or they message me to remind me if I hadn’t written their name down.
I should do that, but I don’t have any recent pictures. I try to be the one holding the camera. x.x
You can hold the camera still… just point it towards you! 😀
I recently updated my gravatar picture, but I’m not sure if it works yet. 😀
Oh look! It worked!
I like this because I know on some blogs I get stuck with that silly image. I’m going to do this now!
Although, your blog shows my face. SCORE! 😉
Looks like I had a Gravatar already and didn’t even know it. HAHA! So funny. 😛 I think my image may not show up sometimes because I’m not logged into WordPress.
This is awesome. Lady, I just love you a little more every week. (In a totally non-creepy…I mean, you’re posts are…I’m married.) ?
When someone changes their Twitter avi, I’m all, “Who the heck is THAT? Why am I following him? Is he trying to talk to me?! What the…” I’ve written nice-to-meet-you type replies on my blog to people who have been commenting for months. It’s wicked cool.
Gravatar makes life so much easier online.
I tried it once, and it seemed to work, then it stopped. I really should try it again.
Bleh, I can’t remember names to save my life. Even names I should totally know sometimes! Tho I have yet to forget the kid’s name… 😉
Okay with faces but terrible with names… especially if there are too many. As an equestrian journalist, I was known on the circuit so would have riders/owners come up to me and start talking as if I remembered them. I was careful what I said – usual standard comments – until they gave a clue. If they mentioned their horse that always worked.
As for recognising horses…………
Yes, I am the same! I do everything by association, and visual association is always the best – like Tricia has/had an avatar of a blue butterfly on her blog – to this day whenever I see a blue butterfly image I think “Oh! Tricia!” and it really feels like a betrayal when it turns out NOT to be her, LOL!
I see so many people, I struggle to remember faces. They all become a blur after a while.
I’m quite good at remembering names… 🙂
The hot air balloon is my signature picture…would it automatically be my gravatar too? Or maybe I need to set it as such…
How cool! I remember faces and not names too. It’s awkward when dealing with people. I end up saying dude a lot!
I’ve heard of gravatar but I’m not sure if I’ve ever set it up correctly. My picture comes up when I post comments on most wordpress blogs but I don’t think it does on yours. I’ll see what happens now LOL.
Hooray! Now I know it works LOL. 😀
It’s always best to put names with faces. I really don’t like it when I’m in online groups (blog comments aside) and the person has a profile pic that’s of their pet or a flower. When I used to teach, I would take a picture of each student on the first day with a nametag they’d made. Otherwise, it would take me a month to learn them names. But after a few review rounds, I would know them in a couple of days.
I’ve seen Gravatar as a posting thing before, but I didn’t realize it was set up to make sure it used the same avatar no matter where it was. I don’t know if I always have the same picture show up on every site that uses it, because I haven’t kept track of which sites do and don’t. >_< And I hate having pictures taken of myself, so I don't know that I'll be showing my face around everywhere anytime soon. Oi.