# In case you're wondering where your avatar went...



## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

...I've disabled Gravatars as per the request of some of the more security/privacy focused/paranoid members here 

You can still upload your avatar as you normally would.


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## rds100 (Dec 30, 2013)

Can't you just download / mirror the gravatars automatically or something?


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## GIANT_CRAB (Dec 30, 2013)

This is terribad.

I'm just going to make up a new conspiracy: VPSBoard forces all members to upload their real life picture and sell off their data.

Its legal to do that because Facebook and Google is already doing it.


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## Francisco (Dec 30, 2013)

GIANT_CRAB said:


> This is terribad.
> 
> I'm just going to make up a new conspiracy: VPSBoard forces all members to upload their real life picture and sell off their data.
> 
> Its legal to do that because Facebook and Google is already doing it.


It's only legal if you have a get out of jail free card doctors note.


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## sundaymouse (Dec 30, 2013)

Francisco said:


> It's only legal if you have a get out of jail free card doctors note.


Where is the famous trailing "Francisco" in this post?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Dec 30, 2013)

Dammit, I've been busted <_<

Francisco


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## telephone (Dec 30, 2013)

WHO's WHO??? :unsure: YOU'RE ALL LOOK THE SAME NOW!!!

*EDIT: *MannDude you racist! Turning everyone white.


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## drmike (Dec 30, 2013)

Hahaha!

Site is working better/faster now.  Die GRAVATAR, DIE!


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## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

drmike said:


> Hahaha!
> 
> Site is working better/faster now.  Die GRAVATAR, DIE!


That may be the nginx (switched from Lighttpd)... may not be.

It does look quite plain though. I wish I had scraped all the gravatars and referenced them locally somehow as suggested above. Just unsure how I'd have gone about doing that without potentially fudging up or it taking too much time.







If you're using the new theme, that's the default photo for no-avatars. Figure that would encourage those to upload their own.


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## joepie91 (Dec 30, 2013)

Perhaps a better option is to use Gravatar, but turn off the generated defaults. It should be possible to set a single fixed "default" image for people without an avatar.

I should also point out that if you're "privacy-minded", you should probably not be registering here with your normal e-mail address in the first place.


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## ChrisM (Dec 30, 2013)

You suck.


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## willie (Dec 30, 2013)

joepie91 said:


> Perhaps a better option is to use Gravatar, but turn off the generated defaults. It should be possible to set a single fixed "default" image for people without an avatar.
> 
> I should also point out that if you're "privacy-minded", you should probably not be registering here with your normal e-mail address in the first place.


It has nothing to do with email: the privacy concern of Gravatar is the way the browser sends your ip addresses and referer url to the Gravatar server anytime you load any page that contains ANY gravatars.  It's just like google analytics beacons, facebook "like" buttons, etc.  As one of those "privacy-minded" users you mention, I've had gravatar.com blocked from my browser for ages, because of this issue, so I'm not reall affected by how vpsboard deals with this, though.


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## AuroraZero (Dec 30, 2013)

Turd Sammiches!!!! Now I have to make a new avatar for here. Guess it is okay though needed to fire up the old image makers and do some work anyways. Just gives me a better excuse if the snow and cold did not do it before.


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## joepie91 (Dec 30, 2013)

willie said:


> It has nothing to do with email: the privacy concern of Gravatar is the way the browser sends your ip addresses and referer url to the Gravatar server anytime you load any page that contains ANY gravatars.  It's just like google analytics beacons, facebook "like" buttons, etc.  As one of those "privacy-minded" users you mention, I've had gravatar.com blocked from my browser for ages, because of this issue, so I'm not reall affected by how vpsboard deals with this, though.


This is no different for any random embedded image (by a user, in a forum post or even signature if you can embed images there!), or an analytics script, or any of the other gazillion external services that are used everywhere around the web and that you can block out by using extensions such as DoNotTrackMe, Ghostery, Disconnect, etc. I really don't see the point of removing Gravatar for that reason.


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## D. Strout (Dec 30, 2013)

For those of you who have your avatars restored, how did you do it? The max image file size is 50KB - you can't put anything in that! The upload area says it recommends an image with a minimum of 200px square, which is straining the bounds of what you can get in to 50kb. Could this be raised to 100KB please?


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## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

joepie91 said:


> This is no different for any random embedded image (by a user, in a forum post or even signature if you can embed images there!), or an analytics script, or any of the other gazillion external services that are used everywhere around the web and that you can block out by using extensions such as DoNotTrackMe, Ghostery, Disconnect, etc. I really don't see the point of removing Gravatar for that reason.


To be fair, it didn't bother me personally that much. It's just a sad truth that we live with nowadays, that 3rd parties _can_ track you and that when loading a page on the internet, perhaps more than just the owner of that website may be able to determine you've been there. But in an effort to make this place better for everyone, including those who are concerned by such things I've put forth an increased effort in reducing 3rd party services where they can reasonably be replaced with something in-house.

Google Anayltics --> Self hosted Piwik

Advertisements/BSA/Ad-network ---> Self-hosted, custom ad-serving script compliments of Novacha

Images --> Not heavily used, but self-hosted images can be added to http://imgu.vpsboard.com (need to install an SSL on it, I know. It's on my list)

CSS/JS --> Served in-house, instead of Google.

Gravatars --> Upload an avatar function is a default feature of any modern forum.


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## mikho (Dec 30, 2013)

I login with twitter and thats where my avatar comes from. When will that be blocked?


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## drmike (Dec 30, 2013)

mikho said:


> I login with twitter and thats where my avatar comes from. When will that be blocked?


Ideally soon...

URL for the avatar:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/3156097971/2139de91b9385bb669b47a258cd95b10_normal.png?_r=1388435045


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## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

mikho said:


> I login with twitter and thats where my avatar comes from. When will that be blocked?


I did have that disabled and more people complained about having it disabled than do than having it enabled. Though I can create you a regular account so you don't have to rely on Twitter to login...


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## wlanboy (Dec 30, 2013)

Login in to Gravatar,

download image,

login into vpsboard

upload image.

Done <_<


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## Magiobiwan (Dec 30, 2013)

Ugh. My Gravatar doesn't fit in the 50KB size limit unless I run it through like... 30 layers of JPEG. DOWN WITH PRIVACY! EMBRACE THE NSA! SHARE ALL THE INFORMATION!

On an unrelated note, what was the agreed upon color for sarcasm?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Dec 30, 2013)

Purple, I believe.


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## mikho (Dec 30, 2013)

MannDude said:


> I did have that disabled and more people complained about having it disabled than do than having it enabled. Though I can create you a regular account so you don't have to rely on Twitter to login...


No worries, I'm not that "security minded".


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## mikho (Dec 30, 2013)

drmike said:


> Ideally soon...
> 
> 
> URL for the avatar:
> ...


I have it saved on one of my servers somewhere.


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## wlanboy (Dec 30, 2013)

Magiobiwan said:


> On an unrelated note, what was the agreed upon color for sarcasm?


I really liked to upload my avatar.

Please delete all avatars again to ensure we again have some fun.


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## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

Hehe.

I'll fix the max upload size once I figure out HOW to do this. My god, IPB from an admin point of view, is horrid. I should have went with XenForu

I've dug through the backend, can't find the damn setting. Searched Google, found a couple things from like 2007-2010. I pay for the software, I'll let support earn their keep by instructing me what to do and how to up the upload size.

Hell, just to have more than 5 recent threads on the sidebar, which is a stock feature, I had to crawl like 8 folders deep just to modify some obscure file and change a '5' to a '10' in the code. I'm sure the max size is hardcoded somewhere dumb too, instead of being a basic feature in the backend. 

Or maybe i'm just blind...


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## ChrisM (Dec 30, 2013)

MannDude said:


> Or maybe i'm just blind...


Wanna borrow my glasses?


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## mikho (Dec 30, 2013)

This?


ACP > System > Tool / Settings > Members > User Profiles > 'Avatars & Photos'


It's really a shot in the dark, haven't used IPB for 5 years or so (as admin).


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## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

mikho said:


> This?
> 
> 
> ACP > System > Tool / Settings > Members > User Profiles > 'Avatars & Photos'
> ...


Nope.


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## MannDude (Dec 30, 2013)

Fixed it.

ACP > Members > Manage Groups > (edit a group) > 'Global' tab > Scroll down to the 'Uploading' section > Adjust the 'Personal Photo Limits' as required and save, repeat for all member groups.

Who'd have thunk it? To be fair, I even did go there but too many features. I was ctrl+f'ing the page for 'avatar'... not 'personal photo'.


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