DanielAGW

Interesting! I thought you are using unsupported PHP 5.3 and this is causing the problem… If you are running clean wordpress installation, then it must be some system-specific problem. Is it Windows or Linux installation? Would it be a problem if you printed your phpinfo(), saved it as HTML and sent it to me? You can send it to me at danielagw.wp AT outlook DOT com

What PHP version are you using?

Have you also checked “Use Gravatar”? These two options need to be checked. Gravatars will be loaded with noticable delay – first all users are assigned a custom avatar based on their username, then after page loads JavaScript checks all of the avatars to see whether user has Gravatar assigned to his e-mail and replaces applicable custom avatar with Gravatar. If there are many avatars on page, it may take even 5 seconds to have them loaded, because every single avatar needs to be checked.

If you are certain that some user should have Gravatar displayed, but it doesn’t show up even after couple of seconds, please use Chrome or Firefox Inspect element feature on the avatar (<img ... /> tag) to see if it has data-bpfla-gravatar attribute assigned to it. If the attribute is there, it means that:
a) The .js file is not added correctly to your blog
b) There is a problem/conflict with jQuery on your site
If you give me link to your blog, I can do some basic verification with Chrome or Firefox inspector to see where the problem lies.

Asynchronous JavaScript-based solution for loading Gravatars has just been added as an option in 1.0.2 release (and also in 1.2.6 release of WP First Letter Avatar). Now you can have the page load very quickly and then check for Gravatars by using jQuery and replace applicable avatars with Gravatars.

Thanks for bringing this issue up – it motivated me to finally implement this handy feature ??

If we start using BuddyPress, would we need to take this plugin down and replace it with the BuddyPress version

Yes. Remove WP First Letter Avatar and install BuddyPress First Letter Avatar instead. BuddyPress First Letter Avatar will also replace avatars on your blog, as it works not only on social BuddyPress pages, but on a whole blog as well.

Hi,
Have you tried deactivating every single plugin, except for MailPoet and WP First Letter Avatar? That’s the only way to find out if that’s the place where the problem lies.
If you gave me admin access, I would do just that – turn off all plugins except for MailPoet and WP First Letter Avatar to see if the conflict is there, so I think there is no need to set up an account for me.

Hello Danny,
Can you tell me where exactly are you getting this notice? Screenshot would be great, too. I just installed MailPoet and I don’t see the notice anywhere in settings. After installation I go to MailPoet > Settings. I keep switching between Settings tabs and the notice is not showing up.

Thanks for the report and sorry for the trouble, let me look into this. I will let you know before the end of the week (most likely sooner).

Cheers,
Dan

I’m glad you find my answer satisfying. I’ll consider adding alternative JavaScript solution in future releases, so that users will be able to choose whether they want faster, but JS-based solution or slower but PHP-only solution for Gravatars.

Well, there shouldn’t be a conflict between WP First Letter Avatar and BuddyPress First Letter Avatar. But just to be sure – try disabling WP First Letter Avatar and keep only BuddyPress First Letter Avatar switched on. Let me know if it changed something.

So you can’t see letter avatar on the right of your userbar? Like this?
Have you tried disabling other plugins to see if any of them causes a conflict?

Hi,
Performance issues are understandable. Before post loads, PHP has to check whether user has Gravatar assigned to his e-mail. It all happens before page is loaded. The loading time will be longer on pages with many comments. On pages without comments (such as main page) the load time should not be longer.

If you turn off Gravatars, the load time should be shorter. If you go to WP First Letter Avatar settings and uncheck Use Gravatar option, you should notice that load time is shorter. Please see if it works for you, just to be sure this is the reason.

I can’t think of any solution to fix this issue while still having Gravatars as default option. It would be possible to make it work asynchronously, but only through JavaScript. So in PHP layer of the plugin, everyone would have a letter avatar assigned, and after page loads, some avatars would be replaced by Gravatar (if user has it assigned). The downside is that JavaScript is required in order to make it work.

Well, it shouldn’t be P for everyone. The letter should depend on user’s name. If it is P for everyone then there must me some conflict with other plugin. What version of BuddyPress are you using? What other plugins are you using?

Hi,
Thanks for the report. I never noticed that WP First Letter Avatar also replaces avatars on the discucssion settings page. I will try to fix this in next update.

WP First Letter Avatar does not add a new option for default avatar in Discussion settings page. Just set default avatar to Mystery man in Discussion settings and activate WP First Letter Avatar and it will start working.

I have never tested it with multisite because I don’t have multisite test environment to check it. But I see no reason why it shouldn’t be working – it’s a simple WP filter with some PHP logic behind it, so it should work on multisite as well.

Please let me know if it works on multisite after you try it!

Cheers,
Dan

Hi,
I’m gonna mark it as resolved because I am 99% sure that it is not directly connected with my plugin. Basically, what the plugin does is it filters the output using add_filter('get_avatar', XXX);. Therefore, it does not interfere with the database at all, so no permanent change is ever made. Every avatar substitution is performed only on the output stage (so it happens right after the request for loading the page is made by a visitor/user).
Maybe there is some way to prevent it being cached. If you find out which plugin(s) cause the unwanted conflict, I can look into this to see if it is possible to avoid it.

I’m very glad you and your customers like the plugin!