I like it much better when multiple comments from the same computer get the same graphic, and where it is harder for commenters to get a new one just by putting something different in the email box.

Many thanks,

Milan

The identicons are built into Gravatar, there is no need for a plugin to use them. They work with a default WordPress install and they’re generated from the email address, not the IP address. You encrypt the email address before sending it to gravatar which sends back the associated image. In the case of identicons, it sends back an image based on the email address. SInce the IP address is never sent, there is no way the image could be based on that.

There are instructions on how to do this on the Gravatar site. Matt probably has some links to it above too (I haven’t checked).

My new support forum which uses these is now live. They seem to be working quite well. I was expecting some questions from users by now about why on earth they have a crazy looking little monster beside their posts, but as yet no one has questioned it.

It has been a handy way to add an easy method of identifying posts whilst skim reading. I get a lot of one off posts in my forum and I doubt anyone would bother to enter an avatar for a single post, so having the gravatars for some and little monsters for everyone else has been quite helpful. It adds a nice personalisation to each persons posts and aids in remembering them when they post on another part of the forum.

Do any of you know of any other examples of these being used on a forum? I haven’t found any but am assuming I’m not the first.

Between sites this doesn’t work, because you can set the way the Identicon is generated (number of squares, colors, etc.).

The built-in Gravitar service is only used for Gravitars, not Identicons. I think we can take Matt’s infatuation with Identicons as a sign that they will be integrated into WordPress in the future, but for now you need the Identicon plug-in, which has had Gravitar support for quite a while, allowing you to use Identicons as a Gravitar fall-back.

I’m not interested in tying comments in with shitty quality MicePace photos, that may or may not have anything to do with the actual commenter.

On sites with an hefty heaping of comments it just drags the page-load time down needlessly.

To me it’s one of those things that seemed pretty cool at first but gets old really fast.

/rant

With that said, if we could somehow use an animated GIF of a dancing banana I may come around on the whole Gravatar thing.

Charles – gravatars are the little images beside everyones comments here on Matt’s blog. Identicons/wavatars are the little geometric shapes which are displayed when someone hasn’t associated an image with their email address at gravatar.com.

Bryan – Perhaps it would be possible to display an identicon and underneath that, have a small linked text saying “No gravatar”? That way you could have the benefit of the identicon, but with the handy tip for your commenters on how to get one – I suspect that many simply don’t know what gravatar is (yet). I’m not sure how you would detect in advance if an email address was gravatar enabled or not though, but if it is possible, then I think that would be a good idea. Matt, do you know if this is possible?

These identicons aren’t just useful for blogs either, they have uses for lots of other things too. I’m making use of them on a new forum which I have under construction at the moment … Pixo Point forum

Thank you very much for pointing this feature out Matt. I had never even thought of this concept before. The only solution I had for dealing with non gravatar/avatar people was to leave a bland default image for them all.

Peter