Still Gravatar, then?

I still have no need or want for a Gravatar.
The forum appeared to have a way to apply a forum picture, but nope… Gravatar or a forum-assigned icon.
Disappointing.

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What’s your beef with Gravatar? I find it really useful.

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It’s yet another site that I have to have an account on, yet another site that bores me with its cookies. That’s why. Twitter allows you to add your own image and will then trim it for you. That should always be the primary method.

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The flip side to that argument is that without Gravatar this forum becomes yet another place you have to remember to manage your profile picture. With Gravatar, you no longer have to.

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I already have a presence on the forum.
If I want an icon that looks like a banana here, one that has me in a Star Trek costume on another, and one on Linkedin that has me suited and booted, I’d like the choice.

With Gravatar, you no longer have to.

That makes it sound optional. It isn’t very.

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Xojo have always wanted the forum to be a place for discussion between people, not internet nicknames. I seem to recall many years ago Xojo (I think Geoff directly) made the point that people who openly discuss a topic without anonymity are more likely to be civil.

What’s the big deal anyway? It’s not like we’re discussing private medical issues or anything. I couldn’t care less if someone discovers I (as in me - Garry Pettet) needed help figuring out some vector maths…

Correct. The more anonymous a person is, the less they feel they have to lose by acting poorly. Using real names, having your picture has your avatar are ways of building trust which builds a better community.

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That was the theory. In practice it leaves a lot to be desired.

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Not discussing anonymity. Thats my name, right there… :slight_smile:

There’s a lot of data to suggest that anonymity promotes unruly behavior. It’s appropriate in some places but it should be the exception rather than the rule. We already have problems online with bots, bad actors, etc. Choosing to be anonymous should be the rare exception if we want to have a civil society.

Gravatar allows you to set different Avatars for your varoius email addresses.

Gravatar binds icon to email?
So, it comes up at other places than only Xojo forum.

I would put my image here but not via third party’s service.

I trust Xojo and no one else… :grin:

Damn, it’s really fun to use the new forum… :grinning:

Was the same with the old forum. But using Gravatar is optional. :wink:

Sigh. Clearly a religious discussion.
I don’t want or need a Gravatar account. If you like it, that’s nice.

Gravatar allows you to set different Avatars for your varoius email addresses.

OK. So it isn’t adding anything at all other than a vague ‘set one up and you may not need to set up an icon for some future forum’.

There are only two answers to my post.
Answer 1: Tough
Answer 2: I’m wrong to want this. (Im not)

So no point discussing it further.

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Gravatar is like all of the other so-called “free” Internet services and utilities. They make their money by tracking you as you move around the Internet, and sell this information to anyone who’s interested. They are especially nefarious, because in order to use them, they get your actual email address, whereas other trackers such as the ad blockers, only have an IP address which frequently changes.

Discourse can be set up to allow system assigned, gravatar, or one assigned by the user IF Xojo wanted to set it up that way
I know this because another discourse I use permits this
Screen Shot 2020-07-29 at 12.26.26 PM

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If Gravatar pays Xojo a small percentage of their ad revenue based on the forum traffic, there would be no incentive for Xojo to allow the custom picture option.

Now, I wonder if the Xojo forum software sends my email address to Gravatar every time I visit the forum, regardless of whether I have a Gravatar avatar? This is something I’d like to know.

Gravatar tells you
https://en.gravatar.com/site/implement/

Dunno if Xojo’s end caches the image once retrieved or when it might refetch it

You could just look at the implementation guide. But the answer is no, they do not.

I wold be amazed if Xojo gets anything from Gravatar. That’s not how either of their businesses work.