Step Talk

Hi everybody! We've made a couple of changes to the site that we hope you'll like.

First, we've enabled user pictures, or avatars, for registered users. You can now upload an image that you think represents you best. This image will be displayed at the top of all blog posts as well as comments throughout the site. There are restrictions to the dimensions and file size of the images you upload. You are currently restricted to images no larger than 64x64 pixels and no bigger than 10kb. These restrictions may change in the future. This restriction is currently not automatic so you'll have to enforce this yourself. Please, no offensive or advertising-related images.

You can upload your avatar image from the photo section on the edit tab of your user account page. You get there from the 'my account' menu item or by clicking your user name on any of your posts.

Second, we disabled the Flash-based titles for posts. We really liked the font, but it slowed down some page loads and it interfered with the new user images. We may be tweaking the font a little. We hope that this won't be too much of an impact to you.

If you need help finding an avatar you could start by searching Google for free avatars.

Update:
OK, several users have asked how you shrink or crop photos to use as avatars. We use an excellent image editing and organization software called Picasa. It's very easy to use but also very powerful when it comes to image editing and organizing. It has just about every feature you'll ever need. Picasa is a free Google product and is included as a component of the Google Pack (see link below). There are several applications in the Google Pack, some of which you might not want, others you will. You can remove them from the download and only get Picasa if you want. Step Talk highly recommends Picasa (actually, the entire Google Pack)! Click the link below to check it out.

Let us know what you think.