1) What to do (once, properly)
- Go to gravatar.com and sign in with the same email your wp.org profile uses (
ron@solveforce.com
in your notice). - Add/Upload avatar
- Use a square, high-contrast headshot.
- Recommended: 1024×1024 PNG/JPG, centered, subtle background; crop inside Gravatar to square.
- Set Rating = G so it shows everywhere.
- Make it Primary for that email. (Gravatar → My Gravatars → set as primary.)
- Add profile links (optional but powerful): SolveForce homepage, LinkedIn, X, GitHub. wp.org can display these via Gravatar’s profile.
- Save. Then wait a minute; continue with cache clears below.
2) Keep your identity canonical (no drift)
- Pick one root:
https://solveforce.com/
orhttps://www.solveforce.com/
. Use the same one in:- Gravatar profile, wp.org profile, JSON-LD
sameAs
, email signature, social bios.
- Gravatar profile, wp.org profile, JSON-LD
- Use the same headshot everywhere (wp.org, LinkedIn, site author cards). Visual coherence ≈ instant trust.
3) If the avatar doesn’t update on wp.org (common)
- Purge Gravatar CDN: sometimes it’s just lag—give it a few minutes.
- Force-refresh the URL (browser cache): open your avatar URL with a cache buster. The Gravatar URL is the MD5 of your lowercase trimmed email:
https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/<MD5_OF_LOWERCASE_TRIMMED_EMAIL>?s=256&d=identicon&r=g
Forron@solveforce.com
(lowercased/trimmed), compute MD5 and hit it with?s=512&v=<timestamp>
. - Log out/in of wp.org, hard refresh (Shift+Reload).
- Make sure the email matches exactly on wp.org (no aliases; exact casing doesn’t matter, but spaces do).
4) Image & profile tuning (tiny but sharp)
- Crop & composition: face ~65–75% of frame, background low contrast; works in light/dark UIs.
- File: PNG if you need crisp edges; JPG is fine. Avoid >1.5 MB.
- Alt text (where supported): “Ronald Joseph Legarski, Jr.”
- Bio in Gravatar: mirror the short About you set on wp.org (“Founder & CEO of SolveForce… turn disarray into array—then into action.”)
5) Multi-email reality
- If you post from multiple properties, add all your professional emails to your Gravatar account and assign the same avatar to each. That keeps comments/plugins that key off different addresses showing the same identity.
6) Privacy & security (because language should protect)
- Gravatar avatars are public; don’t upload PII you wouldn’t publish elsewhere.
- Beware console-paste prompts (the page even warns you): never paste arbitrary code into DevTools.
7) Quick verification checklist
- ✅ Gravatar shows your new headshot for
ron@solveforce.com
. - ✅ Hitting
https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/<hash>?s=256
returns the new image. - ✅ wp.org profile now shows the new photo.
- ✅ Social links in Gravatar profile point to your canonical SolveForce URLs.
8) Optional: programmatic test (for your notes)
# Compute MD5 (lowercase trimmed email), preview avatar:
echo -n 'ron@solveforce.com' | md5
# -> <hash>
open "https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/<hash>?s=512&d=404&r=g"
When the avatar and links match across Gravatar → wp.org → SolveForce, your public key is harmonized—no more ghost identities, no more mixed signals. If you want, I’ll draft a two-line “Author Bio (short + long)” that you can paste into Gravatar and reuse across your sites so every byline sings the same tune.