{"id":3438,"date":"2012-08-08T18:27:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T12:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=3438"},"modified":"2012-08-08T18:27:19","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T12:57:19","slug":"how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/","title":{"rendered":"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A short while ago, I got rid of gravatars in my comments section. In case you didn’t know, gravatars are those little pictures<\/a>\u00a0that appear next to your comments on a blog. \u00a0Sometimes depending on the settings, when you hover over them they “jump out” a bit or fade in a new window that leads to the gravatar profile. I don’t know how useful those profiles are, but the pictures are definitely nice especially since they’ve become a kind of standard on most blogs.<\/p>\n

\"These
These can slow down blogs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problem is that gravatars slow the site down. It’s not a question of bandwidth. Each picture is tiny and even taken together, they form a very low percentage of the bandwidth downloaded. The problem is that they are downloaded separately and take up connection time. In addition, for some reason there are many 301 redirects when requesting a gravatar image. This is not supposed to be a good practice and lowers a page’s speed score.<\/p>\n

I like my site to load quickly. Not only is this better for users, Google also says that it uses speed as a ranking factor. I’ve managed to get it down to under 3 seconds on an average after a lot of tweaking – merging javascript, relocating it to the bottom, rearranging the order of inline javascript and CSS so that one doesn’t block the other. After doing all this, it sucks that gravatars are the bottleneck slowing things down.<\/p>\n

Yet I don’t know whether those who comment on blogs like gravatars. I realize it provides a certain visual impact of the commenter. I want to know how much of an impact that is. If you comment on a site and don’t see gravatars are you disappointed? Is it a bummer?<\/p>\n

As a frequent commenter on various blogs, I myself don’t feel any deficiency with gravatars missing. But I may be falling prey to the self sampling hypothesis and so I’d like feedback from you nice people about how important you think gravatars are for commenters and whether it’s worth the price in slower loading webpages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short while ago, I got rid of gravatars in my comments section. In case you didn’t know, gravatars are those little pictures\u00a0that appear next to your comments on a blog. \u00a0Sometimes depending on the settings, when you hover over them they “jump out” a bit or fade in a new window that leads to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gravatars are great for visual feedback of commenters. But it also slows down the page with 301 redirects. As commenters, how important are gravatars to you?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gravatars are great for visual feedback of commenters. But it also slows down the page with 301 redirects. As commenters, how important are gravatars to you?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expressions - Bhagwad Jal Park\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-08T12:57:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gravatars.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bhagwad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bhagwad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bhagwad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bhagwad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bhagwad\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23\"},\"headline\":\"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-08T12:57:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":377,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/08\\\/gravatars.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/\",\"name\":\"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/08\\\/gravatars.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-08T12:57:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Gravatars are great for visual feedback of commenters. But it also slows down the page with 301 redirects. As commenters, how important are gravatars to you?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/08\\\/gravatars.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/08\\\/gravatars.jpg\",\"width\":\"240\",\"height\":\"240\",\"caption\":\"These can slow down blogs\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/technology\\\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Expressions - Bhagwad Jal Park\",\"description\":\"My thoughts, haikus and freelance musings\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23\",\"name\":\"bhagwad\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/litespeed\\\/avatar\\\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/litespeed\\\/avatar\\\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/litespeed\\\/avatar\\\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388\",\"caption\":\"bhagwad\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/litespeed\\\/avatar\\\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.bhagwad.com\\\/blog\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?","description":"Gravatars are great for visual feedback of commenters. But it also slows down the page with 301 redirects. As commenters, how important are gravatars to you?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?","og_description":"Gravatars are great for visual feedback of commenters. But it also slows down the page with 301 redirects. As commenters, how important are gravatars to you?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/","og_site_name":"Expressions - Bhagwad Jal Park","article_published_time":"2012-08-08T12:57:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":240,"height":240,"url":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gravatars.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"bhagwad","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bhagwad","twitter_site":"@bhagwad","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"bhagwad","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/"},"author":{"name":"bhagwad","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23"},"headline":"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?","datePublished":"2012-08-08T12:57:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/"},"wordCount":377,"commentCount":6,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gravatars.jpg","articleSection":["Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/","name":"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gravatars.jpg","datePublished":"2012-08-08T12:57:19+00:00","description":"Gravatars are great for visual feedback of commenters. But it also slows down the page with 301 redirects. As commenters, how important are gravatars to you?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gravatars.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gravatars.jpg","width":"240","height":"240","caption":"These can slow down blogs"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/technology\/how-important-are-gravatars-to-you-as-a-commenter.html\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Important are Gravatars to You as a Commenter?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/","name":"Expressions - Bhagwad Jal Park","description":"My thoughts, haikus and freelance musings","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06c9c710885b810f1dfe3779fc346b23","name":"bhagwad","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388","url":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388","caption":"bhagwad"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/7940f38fc479ebe739ec963b542bf098.jpg?ver=1782319388"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}