Thanks for the background info @djpaul, appreciated!
I just saw something similar to this if you go to Settings –> Discussions and scroll down you will see you can choose from different style “Generated” avatars, much better then mystery man at least! And super easy! @henrywright-1
Thanks for the tip @missnorthking, I did notice the options under settings.
I’ve been looking for a good way of encouraging users to add an avatar. My thoughts so far are these:
Option 1. Add an avatar upload button to the registration page. The problem with this solution is very well pointed out by @djpaul in trac ticket 2741. Images are uploaded to the server by non-registered users – not a very palatable approach for most developers.
Option 2. Break the registration process into steps. The first step is user registration and activation with the second and final step being an avatar upload (optional) screen. This would ensure images are submitted by genuine site users who have already registered with a valid email address.
Option 3. Do nothing. Have lots of mystery men photos display across the site.
I’d welcome alternative ideas from anyone?
Option 2 sounds viable, depending on your audience I hear there are “points” type plug ins where members gain points if they do things like upload an avatar, follow you on twitter etc…there is also a plug in I saw that gives a profile completed status type bar, as you complete the different profile fields, the bar fills up…does that make sense?