User Avatars In WordPress

[Solidify]

I’ve just about completed the front-end of a site I’m building and I’m learning as I go. The problem I’m having in moving forward with the back-end is in deciding which CMS to go with.

I noticed that this site is running on WP with the bbPress plugin installed. I’ve considered using the same setup but I have yet to find a WP site where the avatars are anything but squares or the Buddypress circles.

Since the avatars are going to be a crucial element in the visual appeal of my site, and they need to be rectangles instead of squares or circles, I’m wondering if maybe WP isn’t the route I should take.

Are the squares something unique to WP, and if so is there a way to change it that isn’t too complicated and without distorting the images? Or should I just save myself the headache and go with a different CMS?

[Alen]

WordPress uses Gravatar.

There’s this http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-themes/how-to-display-round-gravatar-images-in-wordpress/

There’s also http://www.discourse.org/, you can look into solutions that support it.

Hope that helps

[nixnerd]

Gravatar is what we use here too.

BTW Alen, that photo looks like a shot from my childhood. I can still remember me and my bro being pulled down a back road covered in snow on two inner-tubes. Awesome.

[Solidify]

Thanks for the replies guys, but I don’t think either of them addresses what I’m asking.

I’m trying to map out a game-plan here and I’m aware that you use Gravatar. What I’m wondering is if I go with WP, will I be able to pull images from somewhere other than Gravatar since Gravatar will only return a square image, or would it be easier to just go with a different platform altogether?

My original plan was to turn my design into a WP theme following Chris’s video tutorials, but I’d hate go through the whole process only to discover that there’s no way to resize the avatars and have to start all over again.

[Paulie_D]

I also think Chris defined a set dimension for the avatars in his CSS…I recall that they used to be more rectangular…but that may have been before the switch to bbPress.

For instance the width of the avatar div is 20% of the post area and the images have

max-width: 100%;
height: auto !important;

but I think there may be some JS which sets the actual widths etc. as the avatars have a class like avatar-160 and inline dimensions.

[Author]

Posts