Migration of Avatar Image Storage from Gravatar to OzBargain

moocher on 11/07/2018 - 06:39
Last edited 12/07/2018 - 07:02

OzBargain has been using Gravatar for the display of profile avatars since launch. In the interest of removing Gravatar from our list of dependencies, we will now be storing profile avatars on our own media storage platform. Existing users can either

  • Upload a new profile image, or
  • Copy existing image on gravatar to our own media storage.

For convenience, users that have logged in within the past six months will have their existing avatar automatically copied from gravatar.

Users that do not have a profile image uploaded will continue to have the default image as before.

To update your avatar, please hover over 'My Account', click 'Settings' from the popup and use the functions provided in the Profile Avatar section.

Profile Avatar Functions

Known Issues

  • Images with transparency are displaying without white background Fixed
  • Live page is still using gravatar fixed
  • Private message is still using gravatar for participants fixed
Site Discussion

Comments

  • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 06:40

    For convenience, users that have logged in within the past six months will have their existing avatar automatically copied from gravatar.

    The mass copying of gravatars has commenced. It may take an hour or two a few hours.

    • HighAndDry on 11/07/2018 - 10:16
      +2

      Sounds like some diabolical evil villain scheme… What are you going to be doing with this new army of Gravatars hmmm?

      • Scrooge McDuck on 11/07/2018 - 13:52

        That will be revealed in Phase 2.

  • MiniMoo on 11/07/2018 - 06:50

    Thanks moocher.

    • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 06:52

      Looks like you've already manually copied yours. Good work! :)

      • MiniMoo on 11/07/2018 - 06:55

        Didn't have one before. Was about to upload to Gravatar but then saw this post. :)

        • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 06:55

          Ah I see. Great :)

  • Scab on 11/07/2018 - 06:57
    +1

    I've been stripped of my image, I feel so naked and vulnerable.

  • Gandalf the Thrifty on 11/07/2018 - 08:03
    +1

    Thanks, that was lot easier than old process

  • follow on 11/07/2018 - 08:04

    Strange way to do it previously. Much better now

  • beeawwb on 11/07/2018 - 08:56
    +6

    I'm actually quite happy about this change, because my work proxy decided to block gravatar for some reason. Now I can see all your beautiful faces again.

  • Clear on 11/07/2018 - 09:46

    Explains why early this morning mine was missing for a while.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 09:59

    Mine went missing, I had to reupload it? Damn.

    • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 10:00

      The mass copy is still in progress.

      • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 10:01

        Edit: .png files don't work? Did you forget transparency on the copy overs?

        • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 10:44

          We accept .png file uploads, but in terms of copying from gravatar, we are fetching the image from gravatar in the same way we used to request for display on OzBargain. Is there a specific example of the problem you're seeing?

        • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 12:12

          I see what you mean now. There was a conversion option missing. It will be fixed. Thanks.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 13:33

          @moocher: Thanks Mooch.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 10:00

    Gravatar sucks. I don't know why people use it so much.

    • mskeggs on 11/07/2018 - 10:47
      +1

      I agree. I uploaded this avatar for OzB (spoiler, it isn't me), but occasionally get a 'surprise, we use gravatar" when I log in somewhere else with the same email. I much prefer to set each site avatar from a default of an anon icon.

      • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 11:15

        The worst part is that some websites REQUIRE gravatar. Which is utterly terrible.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 12:32

          on the other hand, I like gravatar because I prefer to have the same pic everywhere, and having to update every site is a pain in the butt

        • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 13:32

          @terminal2k: That's Gravatar's purpose, but never to be the only option.

          Kind of like having one username is nice, but ultimately a death sentence.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 11/07/2018 - 13:57

          @StoneSin:

          Kind of like having one username is nice, but ultimately a death sentence.

          It's like they want environmentalists, vegans and lefties to stalk you across multiple different websites.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 11/07/2018 - 13:58

          The worst part is that some websites REQUIRE gravatar. Which is utterly terrible.

          IKR! What kind of idiots would…

          Nevermind.

    • Moderatorscotty on 11/07/2018 - 15:20

      When OzBargain first started (back in 2006) Gravatar was the easiest and cheapest way to integrate profile image for accounts. We have your email address, and all the uploading & serving the images are handled by someone else. Almost zero work for us. Not to mention back then blogs were all the rage, where most people made their online interactions on blog comments, where Gravatar was designed for in the first place. Those who participated in online discussions (i.e. blog comments) already have their profile images on Gravatar.

      Now days people don't comment on blogs, but have social media profiles instead. We could have pulled the image from your Facebook/Twitter account, but we rather not.

      This migration away from Gravatar is actually privacy related. Gravatar identifies users by the MD5 hash checksum of their email address, and that MD5 checksum is unfortunately exposed publicly in HTML. While you still cannot deduce someone's email address from the checksum, it's still considered a private info leak.

      • iratepirate on 11/07/2018 - 15:55
        +1

        Excellent - I'm happy to read that the OzB team take our privacy seriously.

      • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 16:28
        +1

        I don't doubt it's easy. It's just not that nice.

        I don't like social media logins either, they're easy but if something ONLY lets me login using it, I won't be logging in.

        This migration away from Gravatar is actually privacy related. Gravatar identifies users by the MD5 hash checksum of their email address, and that MD5 checksum is unfortunately exposed publicly in HTML. While you still cannot deduce someone's email address from the checksum, it's still considered a private info leak.

        Awesome. Not to mention, server space and such is cheap as chips. Gravatar is no longer needed.

  • knobbs on 11/07/2018 - 10:25

    Out of interest how much space does the Ozb avatar library consume?

    • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 10:35

      500GB.

      Too many big heads.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 11:15

      Probably very, very little. The only thing taking up space is the avatars and possibly deal thumbnails, but even those can be removed later.

  • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 12:54

    The mass copy has been completed.

    If your avatar was not automatically copied over, these could be one of the issues:

    • Your gravatar image was smaller than 256x256.
    • You had not logged into OzBargain in the past 6 months when the script was running this morning.
    • Gravatar was returning a temporary error when your avatar was being copied. The script did retry a couple more times and reported those that repeatedly failed. I've manually copied the ones that failed but I could have missed a few from the output.
    • Scab on 11/07/2018 - 13:42
      +2

      Awesome work Moocher, I'm back and I look cuter than ever.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 20:07

      system may want their one back too :)

      • Moderatormoocher on 12/07/2018 - 06:43

        Oh yes. Thanks, done. (System hadn't logged in for 6 months!)

  • ippy on 11/07/2018 - 15:48

    Finally! I can upload an avatar. However it's not uploading :( my image is of the right dimensions and it's only 20kb. Tried on both FF and Chrome, no extensions enabled.

    • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 15:51

      Sorry the issue was the file type. We only accept GIF, JPEG and PNG. The user interface should have mentioned that.

      • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 16:30

        Still not letting me upload either, Chrome latest.

        Also PNG transparency copy from Gravatar still not working.

        • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 16:34

          Still not letting me upload either, Chrome latest.

          We saw an error triggered, having to do will file type, but sadly the error reporting back to the user was not working due to a typo. The allowed file types are GIF (.gif), JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) and PNG (.png)

          Also PNG transparency copy from Gravatar still not working.

          As we need to restart the server processes, the fix won't be rolled out until early tomorrow morning.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 17:14

          @moocher: image.PNG didn't work. Do you accept ignored case or just .png ?

          Anyway :)

        • Moderatormoocher on 11/07/2018 - 17:28

          @StoneSin: Oops, you got me. Forgot to convert suffix to lowercase before checking. Sorry about that. Fix will be rolled out tomorrow.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/07/2018 - 18:18

          @moocher: If you want to hire me, I'm free weekends and 1hour on Thursday.

          hahah

        • Moderatormoocher on 12/07/2018 - 06:43

          @StoneSin: ;) I've copied your gravatar now.

        • [Deactivated] on 12/07/2018 - 09:18

          @moocher: Perfect thanks

        • ippy on 12/07/2018 - 16:31

          @StoneSin: haha nice catch

        • [Deactivated] on 12/07/2018 - 17:08

          @ippy: I'm really good at finding bugs. Not so great at expecting them.

  • sss333 on 25/09/2018 - 16:20
    +1

    Might make sense to update the Wiki about the Gravatar stuff
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:profile_avatar?utm_so…

    • Moderatormoocher on 25/09/2018 - 16:25

      Good point, will get on to it. Thanks.

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