Comments on: WP_MonsterID: automatic, unique avatars http://www.metablog.us/users/wp_monsterid-automatic-unique-avatars/ blogging about blogging about Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:59:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Aziz Poonawalla http://www.metablog.us/users/wp_monsterid-automatic-unique-avatars/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Aziz Poonawalla Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:20:47 +0000 http://www.metablog.us/users/wp_monsterid-automatic-unique-avatars/#comment-3 Intriguing... I suppose it has to parse the entire comment thread, and then remove the nofollow links rather than intercepting the no-follow links before they are added. Also you tend to have very active discussion threads, so the problem gets worse over time. As far as gravatars go, though, I think there's a limit to performance since the script has to fetch the avatars from an external site. The MonsterID icons are stored locally on your own site domain. So I imagine that the latter is faster, but maybe it's not a difference thats perceptible as your thread now loads quite quickly (though I've reloaded it a few times so some of the images are probably in my local cache). Also, I kind of like the look of these monster dudes :) But thats purely an aesthetic choice, of course. Intriguing… I suppose it has to parse the entire comment thread, and then remove the nofollow links rather than intercepting the no-follow links before they are added. Also you tend to have very active discussion threads, so the problem gets worse over time.

As far as gravatars go, though, I think there’s a limit to performance since the script has to fetch the avatars from an external site. The MonsterID icons are stored locally on your own site domain. So I imagine that the latter is faster, but maybe it’s not a difference thats perceptible as your thread now loads quite quickly (though I’ve reloaded it a few times so some of the images are probably in my local cache).

Also, I kind of like the look of these monster dudes :) But thats purely an aesthetic choice, of course.

]]> By: Shamus http://www.metablog.us/users/wp_monsterid-automatic-unique-avatars/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Shamus Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:59:12 +0000 http://www.metablog.us/users/wp_monsterid-automatic-unique-avatars/#comment-2 I think the slow page loads were not the fault of Gravatars. I got a firm letter from HostingMatters letting me know that my site was beating the living hell out of their server, and they'd even had to restart it. Ouch. I disabled gravatars, re-enabled Akismet, and did a bunch of other stuff, but the problem didn't go away until I disabled the plugin that removed the "nofollow" tags from comments. I can't believe that such a simple plugin would cause so much trouble, but a few tests seem to confirm this. I think the slow page loads were not the fault of Gravatars. I got a firm letter from HostingMatters letting me know that my site was beating the living hell out of their server, and they’d even had to restart it.

Ouch.

I disabled gravatars, re-enabled Akismet, and did a bunch of other stuff, but the problem didn’t go away until I disabled the plugin that removed the “nofollow” tags from comments.

I can’t believe that such a simple plugin would cause so much trouble, but a few tests seem to confirm this.

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