Apparently I do, and seeing as WordPress sites still integrate quite a bit with it I decided to set one back up.

Of course, the most popular use of Gravatar was just for having a consistent internet presence across multiple, even independent sites (unfortunately social media won out in that respect), but it also had a pretty competent profile system. You can still see Matt Mullenweg’s here.

I did run into some issues, though. Unfortunately, YouTube linking was broken, Flickr linking was no longer there, and I could only add site domains so adding the Patio itself as a website was a no-go.

AIM was still listed as a contact option but not MSN, and it’s not possible to add your own fields.

Oddly enough they actually do have options for adding Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin addresses to your account, so someone out there must be updating this site, right..?

Despite the lacking number of services to pair it with now and the weird little quirks I’ve had with it, I still quite like Gravatar’s profiles and if it had some more services to link to (namely GitHub, Flickr, and fixed YouTube, custom fields would be nice as well), I could consider mine complete. With its option for adding photos to your profile, it reminded me of the old MSN contact cards which looked quite comfy as well.

P.S. Hover on my Gravatar below, I got hovercards set up.

Updates to the blog!

First off, a WAP version of the Patio is now accessible here. Put simply, it uses a lightweight variant of XHTML designed for earlier mobile phones and cellular networks. It uses this WordPress plugin.

And also, the Patio itself has gotten a fresh coat of paint with that sweet, sweet Aero flair. I came across the theme on an archived version of the WordPress theme index, though you may still find it here. (Good luck finding it through much other means, as browsing WordPress’s theme index for anything but new, overly modern stuff is rather difficult past Twenty Ten.) I tweaked it just a little bit, and man is it looking spiffy, complete with working Start menu.

I like it. It strikes as just enough to have that early personal weblog feeling to it while being distinct. And really shiny. I’m not sure if I’ll keep this look, in case I come across another theme that matches the general feel I’m trying to accomplish with this blog, but it’s likely going to stick around for a while.

Did some spring cleaning on the blog, including an upgrade to WordPress 5.4 (featuring a bunch of Gutenberg improvements, bless them), getting rid of some unused themes and a new URL: http://dotcomboom.somnolescent.net/patio, as you may have noticed. If you linked to /blog beforehand, no worries as I’ve put a simple redirect in my .htaccess file.

Redirect 301 /blog /patio

Just know that this URL will be used for the foreseeable future, and updating links could be a good idea if I accidentally wipe .htaccess or something.