Jim,
In the comments.php file is a line
<?php echo get_avatar( $comment, 32 ); ?>
It creates or fetches this
gravatar.com/avatar/ ea8e8362504da45acddad5538552db1f ?s=32&d=http%3A%2F %2Fwww.gravatar.com %2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435 acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D32&r=G
(a faceless avatar)
which was revealed with this site
ircache.net/cgi-bin/cacheability.py? query=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. actualcures .com&descend=on
The site shows that the link won’t validate and causes server errors. ahoo’s YSlow also showed an error. But if you put the link in the address bar by hand, the avatar comes up fine. I really don’t care for the avatar so I took the php code out, and now I don’t get the error. There’s an option in wordpress settings to use or not use the avatar and if you choose to use it the php code I took out reappears. Do you have any experience with this?
Roger
I don’t use them Roger – I try to keep my wordpress sites a fast as possible.
I would just turn Gravatars and leave it.
Regards,
Jim.
Jim,
I see a solid increase in the number of visitors since I removed the code for the gravatar avatar – 30%
Roger
Wow! That’s an impressive number just from removing the gravatar!