Hi Jane, and welcome!

This brief post tells you how to get a personalised avatar. I love to see people personalising their online image. It makes the whole thing more fun.

Good stuff, Jane. The important thing is to use the same email addr as the one you used on the forum registration when you post your image to the Gravatar site.

I get a real kick when I leave a comment on some web site or blog and my Groucho gravatar instantly appears.

A phenomon of the Internet is the intense deisre for privacy (very, very understandable). Fiona and I were incredibly shy about posting our photos for, I guess, almost three years. But we realised that every time we visited a good blog, one of the first things we wanted was to see a photo of the blog owner. Those that had done that effectively provided a visual link that was stamped on our minds. They became favourites. So we took the plunge this summer (2009) and put up photos on our About Us page.

Only a few months later, we cannot really understand what held us back for the previous three years. It seems daft in hindsight and is no big deal.

Interestingly, only Toffeeapple, amongst our regular contributors, has published a photo of herself. It seems sort of sad but understandable that everybody is possibly afraid to do the same. Yet, it has a really positive effect on our connection with people. A photo is really positive. Forget about your fears or phobias. Everybody is beautiful.

So - Danny - why have you not published a photo of yourself?

Answer: because I am totally non-photogenic! My work security photo (10 years old) is one of the 2 or 3 that I like. (enough said!)

Hey! Jane and Shelley - absolutely top marks to you both. Well done for diving in at the deep end! And to you too, S.O.L. although you are like me - just a tad shy. Nice flowers, though. I was a hero today because I found some CFC Orchids at £1 per bunch. Cheapskate? Me?

Well . . maybe. But they will scent the kitchen for a week at least. Great value.

OK, Jane / Shelley - you have laid down the gauntlet. My turn to replace the Groucho image with a photo of myself. Fiona laughs at my photos, even those take by pro photographers. She refers to them as my "baby shots" because I look a total idiot, gummy and simplistic !!

My plan is to do a bit of method acting, pretend I am James Bond (black tie optional) and ask her to capture me looking cool and moody. Some chance!

OMG, S.O.L. - this is (what was that horror movie with Christopher Lee on an island off Scotland where they had pagan rituals and burnt that poor bloke alive in a big cage?)