I finally signed up at MyBlogLog and set up my sites. Now I just need to decide if I want to put the “Recent Readers” bar on my site. Since a lot of people who read my blog are real life friends, I’m not sure that adding the “Recent Readers” bar would add any value to my site. (Do any of you have a MyBlogLog account?) But, I like gadgets, so I’ll probably install it, at least for a bit, the next time I’m messing around with my blog template.
While I was reading about MyBlogLog, I came across a tutorial from Stark over at FuzzyFuture about adding MyBlogLog images to comments for Wordpress blogs.
I briefly toyed with the idea, but decided against it in the end. Gravatar offers more flexibility and are easy to implement. They also offer the commenter a greater incentive to leave a comment on my site. If the reader has to use the URL field to specify their MyBlogLog account, then they don’t have the opportunity to gain a link to their blog. While some may feel that the link to MyBlogLog can lead people to their blog, I’ve discovered that a shorter path is a better path. Our attention span is just too short to force people through a maze to finally find our home page.
Also, as someone who writes on multiple blogs, it is important to have flexibility. When I am surfing poker blogs, and want to comment, I want to have the ability to send people to my poker blog. If the blog falls under any other category, then I point to this, my personal blog.
In the end, it’s about preference. As a Gemini, I like having choices! But, for me, the choice remains Gravatar for individual images associated with comments.
**Update** Doh. I didn’t realize how it really worked. I thought I had to enter the url to my member profile (like this: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/Jaxia) instead of just putting the URL that I registered on the site. Hmm. It’s more compelling now, but I’m still interested to see how many people have Gravatar accounts compared to MyBlogLog accounts.
Alliance of Free Blogs - I found You Know You Wanna while searching for kitty porn. No, that's not a typo.
Basing it on the URL is great. If you have multiple blogs set up with MBL, you can use any of those URLs when commenting and your image still shows up. Likewise, if you want to have separate accounts for your blogs, you can have different images appear based on which URL you give.
Comment by Shane — April 20, 2007 @ 7:40 am
I had the same dilemma. So I use both! On WP Station I use the MBL avatars, and personal site, gravatars (but you knew that part)
Comment by miklb — April 26, 2007 @ 1:11 pm