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[willurd]

The idea here is to allow some minimal form of public (read: visible to others) personalization. For example, allowing users to select a username color (maybe from a curated set of colors, like how GMail label colors work). Allowing users to optionally specify their username color, for example, would do two things: 1) it would make people feel a little bit closer to their Pullup identity, and 2) it would aid (a little) in scanning and quick recognition of usernames. This might be enough by itself.

[treygriffith]

Another thing to do would be to use avatars, like we already sort of do on the user news page - it might make it feel a little more personal.

[willurd]

@treygriffith I like. 👍

[megamattron]

👍

[megamattron]

I also like the avatars idea. Another thing to consider: since we're all trusted users here, maybe we could have some custom javascript that could either draw an avatar or go fetch an image, or whatever?

[treygriffith]

Even as trusted users I think custom javascript is a pretty dangerous thing to do - even if it's not malicious, it can cause problems.

What benefit would that have over letting users pick their own image and/or using their gravatar?

[megamattron]

I'm not sure what people might do with it, might be an algorithmic avatar
image generator, or show a live feed from a webcam or something dumb like
that, hah.

On Saturday, March 8, 2014, Trey Griffith [email protected] wrote:

Even as trusted users I think custom javascript is a pretty dangerous
thing to do - even if it's not malicious, it can cause problems.

What benefit would that have over letting users pick their own image
and/or using their gravatar?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/304#issuecomment-37103993
.

[willurd]

@megamattron If we did allow people to write code that generates their avatar, maybe that's something we can do via pull request? We could have an api where you register an avatar function that takes a canvas context and must only draw to that:

registerAvatarFunction("willurd", "2d", function(ctx, width, height) {
    // best avatar evar
    ctx.strokeStyle = "#abc123";
    ctx.moveTo(0, 0);
    ctx.lineTo(width, height);
    ctx.stroke();
});

Because the width and height are specified by the framework, the same generator can be used to create images of arbitrary size. Because it's done via pull request we get the same level of code review and vetting that we do with any other code that members write. Because it's just code, we can allow for animated avatars if we want (though I can see how that can get out of hand/tacky).

[josephwegner]

@williurd +1—
Sent from Mailbox for iPhone

On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 12:54 PM, William Bowers [email protected]
wrote:

@megamattron If we did allow people to write code that generates their avatar, maybe that's something we can do via pull request? We could have an api where you register an avatar function that takes a canvas context and must only draw to that:

registerAvatarFunction("willurd", "2d", function(ctx, width, height) {
    // best avatar evar
    ctx.strokeStyle = "#abc123";
    ctx.moveTo(0, 0);
  ctx.lineTo(width, height);
    ctx.stroke();
});

Because the width and height are specified by the framework, the same generator can be used to create images of arbitrary size. Because it's done via pull request we get the same level of code review and vetting that we do with any other code that members write. Because it's just code, we can allow for animated avatars if we want (though I can see how that can get out of hand/tacky).

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#304 (comment)

[treygriffith]

Yeah I think if we allow any arbitrary code, it should have to be done through PR so that nothing super wonky happens. That said, I'm a fan of starting off with something simple (e.g. gravatar) and working our way to something more complex as people desire it.

[willurd]

I'm down with simple first.

[josephwegner]

👍 for the PR for profile personalization.. That gels well with how we are currently set up.. And I'd love to get the SVG version of my logo added to my profile!

[willurd]

Regarding programmatic avatars: It would be interesting if in code when you 'register an avatar function' it's not tied to the user but rather it's added to the set of avatars that are available to everyone. Then in your account, there's a setting for which avatar you want.

[rickhanlonii]

👍 Really into the personalization, and even more into the ability to issue a PR for it.

I'd like to also see an option for a short description. E.g. news.layervault.com:

So something like:

[willurd]

@rickhanlonii That's awesome! I'm totally for that.

[tdhsmith]

@rickhanlonii Definitely agree with the short description idea... that's something I think we could add right away.

Generally agree with the rest of the direction here too; something straightforward like Gravatar integration first, then perhaps building a small library of interactive avatars over time as @willurd described. For each one suggested we can examine whether the coolness balances out the overhead etc.

[rickhanlonii]

Since I'm seeing good feedback on the short description, I created issue #331 to track.

[rickhanlonii]

Update: we added descriptions in #331, and are tracking profile text personalization in #225. I think what remains is to add Gravatar for user avatars (title updated to reflect).

Tasks:

• Integrate Gravatar to user profile
• Add profile picture to user profile