If you’ve ever posted or read comments on a blog, you’ve probably noticed the little icons associated with each post. If you’re a new commenter, you may wonder why you get some sort of boring nondescript icon instead of something that reveals your True Character.

While some sites’ comment systems have their own proprietary way to manage commenter icons, many sites use Gravatar to display these. Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) allows you to set up an icon that’s associated with your email address. That way, wherever you post a comment (if that site makes use of Gravatars), you’ll have the same icon next to your comment. Just make sure you set up your Gravatar with the email address you plan to use while posting (you can add additional email addresses to a single Gravatar account).

Gravatar is made by the folks responsible for the blogging/CMS platform WordPress. Here’s a video that explains how Gravatars work: