Gori Girl

Post edited 11:49 am – May 10, 2009 by Gori Girl

So, as you've probably noticed, some forum posters (like me) have a picture, called an avatar, that is shown on every message they write. Avatars are a nice way to make a forum conversation seem more “real” by showing a picture of yourself – or just a way to show off your individuality with a funny photo. So, if you're wondering on how to get one on your profile, here's the step-by-step guideline. This certainly isn't the only way to make an avatar, but it's the easiest I've found.

1. Pick out a picture. This should be a picture without too much detail, as you're going to have to shrink it down to 100 x 100 pixels or less. If you don't want to use a personal photo, flickr has a lot great photos you can use (but be sure to pick one out that has a creative commons license). Make sure you have a copy of the photo downloaded onto your computer.

2. Go to shrinkpictures.com , and follow the instructions there to shrink your picture down to no more than 100 x 100 pix. The website will give you several different options with different croppings – pick the one you like the best, and go to the url offered for that picture.

3. Right click on the shrunken image and save it to your computer. I suggest saving it with a name like avatar-100 or something along those lines, in case you want to use it as an avatar on another website.

4. Go to your profile here on the gorigirl forums. You can find it in the upper right corner when you're on the forum page. If you haven't already done so, be sure to change your password to something you choose, rather than what the wordpress software chose for you when you registered.

5. Scroll down to the avatar section in the profile, and upload your photo. And then you're done!

Any questions? Anyone have a simpler method, or a better website to resize your photos?