The Gravatar plugin

Listed as “Akeeba Engage – Gravatar“.

Communicating via text on the Internet is a very impersonal experience. For the majority of people having a visual clue of the person whose comment they are reading adds more personality to the conversation and enriches the experience. The typical way to achieve that is the use of avatars, i.e. small images representing the user. This plugin implements avatars using the free of charge, popular Gravatar service. Gravatar is a third party service which is not affiliated with Akeeba Ltd.

Note: This plugin implements avatars which are an optional, visual convenience feature for sighted users. We do understand that not all users are sighted and even sighted users may not be able to enjoy avatars due to range of accessibility requirements. We are an inclusive company and have worked to the best of our ability to provide a meaningful, rich experience for everyone through built-in and optional features. If you feel that we missed something please refer to the Accessibility page for information on how you can help us improve. Thank you for your understanding.

Options

Show profile link. Gravatar offers a user profile summary page on top of an avatar image page. When this option is enabled the user's full name will be linked to their Gravatar profile page. This is recommended as it helps provide context to the conversation. Do note that Gravatar's profile page is both accessible and tagged with structure data, making it a great context resource for accessible sites and search engines alike.

Rating. Gravatar avatars can come in different content ratings, described with a system closely following the one used for movie ratings in the United States. By default only G-rated avatars are displayed. These are avatars suitable for general audiences and are meant to be devoid of any nudity (even partial), rude gestures, foul language and violence. If your site has a more mature audience you can select a different avatar rating. Do note that the other end of the spectrum, X-rated avatars, may include imagery that most people would find disturbing including graphic violence and explicit sexual acts.

Default image. Choose the default image displayed when a user has not set up a Gravatar avatar. The default setting is Mystery Person, a genderless human profile in a dull gray background. You can read about all the other options on Gravatar's site. The Custom Image option allows you to choose your own image in the Custom Default Image option below.

Custom Default Image. Only applies when Default Image is set to Custom Image. Choose an image file to display when the user does not have a corresponding Gravatar profile image. Make sure that the image file is publicly available outside your site; it needs to be readable by the Gravatar service.

Force default image. When enabled the Default Image will always be used, even if the user has set an avatar. It makes sense when the Default Image option is set to something that creates a profile image algorithmically i.e. anything other than Mystery Person, Blank Image or Custom Image.