Do you like new Gravatar Hovercards? Why don’t you prepare your visitors without Gravatar for the upcoming plugin with this feature for self-hosted WordPress installation by encouraging them to signup to Gravatar?
Almost one year after initial release, I am proud to announce second version of my plugin Gravatar Signup Encouragement.
This version improves existing and adds new features. You can check full changelog here but below I’ll highlight most important.
Now message is also shown to users who already left comment before. Also, it is much easier to show message on comment form that doesn’t follow standard WordPress markup (I added support Carrington Blog and Mystique themes though users can add support for any other too).
If you was limited with way of selecting page elements for showing of message there are good news: now you can add a message to literally any element by using any jQuery selector! Note that old custom IDs are automatically updated to new form on plugin’s upgrade.
You thought that message shown when comment is written was not visible enough? Welcome the new way to show message: in a dialog box after user posted comment as in picture below.
Message shown in a dialog over a Twenty Ten theme after comment is posted
This dialog will be shown only if user doesn’t have Gravatar, not to all users who left comment. It is not popup window, it is simply a Thickbox iframe showed on top of your page that will be easily hidden after user clicks close button or click on a link to Gravatar’s signup page.
You thought that message shown on profile page was not visible enough? Welcome the new way to show message in administration area for registered users: in an administration notices as in picture below.
Message shown in administration notices
Since WordPress MU was merged to main WordPress branch, I added support to multisite installations so you can show a message to users who signup on your network. Also, you can setup Gravatar Signup Encouragement on per site basis.
If you had problems with Gravatar Signup Encouragement settings, now you can simply click link “example of how this looks” to see screenshot of example of usage of that feature. Also, by clicking “Help” menu in top right corner, you’ll get links to Gravatar Signup Encouragement documentation and support forums.
If you thought that message was not descriptive enough, there is a new, more descriptive one which is shown by default.
Since Gravatar Signup Encouragement uses jQuery to show message, there is now an encouragement to install plugin Use Google Libraries which enables loading of jQuery file from Google’s CDN.
For developers, there are many new hooks and functions that can be used in themes and plugins. Post that describes this features will be posted in the future.
You can easily upgrade to new version via automatic upgrade tool in WordPress or by downloading zip archive.
You like Gravatar Signup Encouragement? Show your love by blogging about it, tweeting or sharing on Facebook or any other social site you use.
Send your thoughts about Gravatar Signup Encouragement in comments of this blog, or via official support forum.