Author Avatars: How They Work

Molongui Authorship provides several ways to display an avatar for your authors. Depending on your settings and the information available for each author, the plugin can use a locally uploaded avatar, a Gravatar, a custom default avatar, or the default avatar configured in WordPress.

This guide explains how the different avatar sources work, which one takes priority, and what happens when a particular avatar is not available.

Available avatar sources

Molongui Authorship can use the following avatar sources:

Local Avatar — An image uploaded directly to the author profile.
Gravatar — The avatar associated with the author’s email address on Gravatar.
Custom Default Avatar — An image you choose in Molongui Authorship to use when no author-specific avatar is available.
WordPress Default Avatar — The default avatar configured under Settings > Discussion in WordPress. This is used as part of the normal Gravatar flow when appropriate.
Acronym — In some Molongui Authorship features, such as the Author Box or supported shortcodes, an acronym generated from the author’s name can also be used as a fallback.

Avatar priority

When all three global avatar options are enabled, Molongui Authorship normally checks avatar sources in this order:

Local Avatar → Gravatar → Custom Default Avatar

The first available avatar is displayed.

For example, if an author has a local avatar, it is used immediately and Gravatar is not needed. If no local avatar exists, Molongui Authorship can try Gravatar. If the author does not have a Gravatar, the Custom Default Avatar is displayed.

How the global avatar settings affect the fallback chain

The avatar settings act as global switches. When you disable a source, Molongui Authorship removes it from the avatar resolution process.

For example:

Local Avatar ON + Gravatar ON + Custom Default ON: Local → Gravatar → Custom Default
Local Avatar OFF + Gravatar ON + Custom Default ON: Gravatar → Custom Default
Local Avatar ON + Gravatar OFF + Custom Default ON: Local → Custom Default
Local Avatar OFF + Gravatar OFF + Custom Default ON: Custom Default
Local Avatar ON + Gravatar OFF + Custom Default OFF: Local only
All avatar sources OFF: No avatar is displayed

This makes it possible to configure the avatar system according to your site’s privacy requirements and visual preferences.

What happens when the Custom Default Avatar is disabled?

If Gravatar is enabled but the Custom Default Avatar is disabled, Molongui Authorship lets the normal WordPress/Gravatar process use the Default Avatar configured in WordPress when the author does not have a Gravatar.

You can configure the WordPress Default Avatar under:

WordPress Dashboard > Settings > Discussion > Default Avatar

The WordPress Default Avatar is therefore different from the Custom Default Avatar provided by Molongui Authorship.

What happens when an author has no email address?

Gravatar requires an email address. If an author does not have a valid email address, Molongui Authorship skips Gravatar entirely.

For example, with Local Avatars, Gravatar, and the Custom Default Avatar enabled:

Local Avatar → Custom Default Avatar

If the author has neither a local avatar nor an email address, the Custom Default Avatar is displayed.

If the Custom Default Avatar is also disabled, no avatar is displayed.

This is intentional. Molongui Authorship does not send unnecessary requests to Gravatar when there is no valid email address to check.

Local author avatars

A Local Avatar is an image uploaded directly to an author profile. It does not require an external service and does not depend on the author’s email address.

When Local Avatars are enabled and an author has one configured, the local image normally has the highest priority.

Local avatars can be used by both WordPress Users and Guest Authors.

Gravatar

Gravatar is an external avatar service that associates an image with an email address.

When Gravatar is enabled, Molongui Authorship can request the Gravatar associated with the author’s email address whenever a higher-priority avatar source is not available.

If the author does not have a Gravatar, Molongui Authorship continues through the configured fallback chain.

You can completely disable Gravatar from the Molongui Authorship settings. When Gravatar is disabled, Molongui Authorship does not use it as an avatar source.

This is particularly useful for websites that prefer to avoid requests to the Gravatar service.

Custom Default Avatar

The Custom Default Avatar lets you choose your own image to display when an author does not have an available author-specific avatar.

This is useful if you want all authors without an avatar to display your site’s logo, a branded placeholder, or another image of your choice instead of one of the standard WordPress avatars.

The Custom Default Avatar is a global fallback. It does not replace an author’s Local Avatar or an existing Gravatar when those sources have higher priority and are enabled.

WordPress Users and Guest Authors

The same global avatar rules apply to both WordPress Users and Molongui Guest Authors.

Both types of authors can have:

A Local Avatar.
An email address associated with a Gravatar.
The Custom Default Avatar as a fallback.

This means your avatar configuration remains consistent regardless of whether a post is written by a registered WordPress User or a Guest Author.

Author Box avatar settings

The Author Box also provides settings that let you choose an avatar source and fallback behavior.

These settings provide more control over the avatar displayed specifically inside the Author Box, but the global avatar settings still act as master switches.

For example, if Gravatar is disabled globally, selecting Gravatar as the Author Box avatar source cannot re-enable Gravatar.

This prevents individual display settings from overriding your site’s global avatar policy.

Using avatars with the author avatar shortcode

Molongui Authorship Pro provides the [molongui_author_avatar] shortcode for displaying an author’s avatar independently from the Author Box.

The shortcode can use the normal avatar resolution logic or explicitly request a particular source such as:

source="auto"
source="local"
source="gravatar"
source="acronym"

The global Local Avatar and Gravatar settings still act as master switches when these sources are requested explicitly.

See the dedicated shortcode documentation for detailed examples and fallback behavior.

Disabling Gravatar completely

If you do not want your site to use Gravatar, disable the Gravatar option in the Molongui Authorship avatar settings.

Once disabled, Gravatar is removed from the avatar fallback chain.

For example, with Local Avatars and the Custom Default Avatar enabled:

Local Avatar → Custom Default Avatar

No Gravatar is required for authors that use this configuration.

Choosing the right avatar setup

There is no single avatar configuration that is best for every website. The appropriate setup depends on how you manage your authors and whether you want to use an external avatar service.

Some common configurations are:

Maximum flexibility: Enable Local Avatars, Gravatar, and the Custom Default Avatar.
No Gravatar requests: Enable Local Avatars and the Custom Default Avatar, and disable Gravatar.
Gravatar-focused setup: Disable Local Avatars and keep Gravatar enabled.
Local avatars only: Enable Local Avatars and disable both Gravatar and the Custom Default Avatar.
Single branded avatar fallback: Disable Local Avatars and Gravatar, and enable the Custom Default Avatar.

Related guides

For step-by-step instructions, see the following avatar guides:

Updated on October 8, 2026

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