July 24, 2026
Avatar: The Last Straw
Re: Bye Bye Gravatar
Users rage-quit old profile service as commenters argue, nitpick, and admire the fonts
TLDR: A blogger deleted their Gravatar account over a newly added AI-related feature and called it the final straw in a long dislike of Automattic. In the comments, readers split between sympathy, confusion, and nitpicking the logic — while several got hilariously sidetracked praising the site’s design.
A simmering grudge against Automattic just turned into a full breakup post. The writer behind Re: Bye Bye Gravatar says Gravatar — the old web service that used to automatically slap your profile picture onto websites — has finally crossed the line. The trigger? An unannounced AI-related change that the author calls an "ANTI-feature", leading to a dramatic account deletion and a full "goodbye and good riddance" to everything tied to Automattic. For this writer, Gravatar went from mildly useful internet glue to one more sign of a company allegedly making its products worse, not better.
But the comments? Oh, the comments are where the real show starts. One camp basically said, hold on, what exactly is the scandal here? Several readers seemed less fired up than confused, with one bluntly admitting they felt they were "missing a lot of context" and were not about to go link-hopping for homework. Another called out what looked like mixed messaging, questioning why the post condemns AI while name-dropping newer profile-linking services that may raise similar concerns.
Then there was the unexpected plot twist: people got distracted by how nice the site looked. Yes, amid the digital fury, commenters were swooning over the beautiful typography and pleasant visual design like guests complimenting the wallpaper during a family meltdown. And one old-school observer tossed in a spicy counterpoint: Gravatar, they argued, actually got better after years of being a mess. So the vibe was half outrage, half skepticism, with a side of: sure, but your blog is gorgeous though.
Key Points
- •The article reports that the author deleted their Gravatar account.
- •The author links their dissatisfaction with Gravatar to broader dissatisfaction with Automattic and WordPress products.
- •The post says Gravatar’s historical value was automatic avatar population across websites and applications.
- •The author argues that Gravatar now appears less useful because they rarely see it auto-populate avatars anymore.
- •The immediate reason given for deletion is an AI-related Gravatar feature that the author says was added without notice.