Yes. Molongui Authorship lets you disable Gravatar as an avatar source so your author avatars no longer depend on requests to Gravatar.
Disable Gravatar in Molongui Authorship
- Go to Authors > Settings.
- Open the General tab.
- Find the Author Avatar Settings section.
- Disable Use Gravatar for author avatars.
- Save the settings.
Once disabled, Molongui Authorship removes Gravatar from its avatar resolution process.
What happens to author avatars after disabling Gravatar?
Molongui Authorship continues using the remaining enabled avatar sources.
For example, if Local Avatars and the Custom Default Avatar are enabled, the avatar priority becomes:
Local Avatar → Custom Default Avatar
If neither is available, no avatar is displayed.
What about the WordPress Default Avatar?
The WordPress Default Avatar is part of the normal WordPress/Gravatar avatar flow.
When Gravatar is disabled in Molongui Authorship, Molongui author avatars do not use the WordPress Default Avatar through that flow.
If you want a fallback image without using Gravatar, enable the Custom Default Avatar instead.
Does disabling Gravatar delete anything?
No.
Disabling Gravatar does not delete Local Avatars, author email addresses, or any Gravatar associated with those email addresses.
It only prevents Molongui Authorship from using Gravatar as an avatar source.
Can I still use Local Avatars?
Yes.
Local Avatars are stored on your own WordPress site and do not require Gravatar.
A common configuration for sites that want to avoid Gravatar is:
- Use local author avatars: Enabled
- Use Gravatar for author avatars: Disabled
- Use a custom default avatar: Enabled
This gives you:
Local Avatar → Custom Default Avatar
What if I still see requests to Gravatar.com?
If Gravatar is disabled in Molongui Authorship but you still see requests to Gravatar, they may be generated by WordPress itself, your theme, another plugin, or cached page content.
In that case, see Why Is Gravatar Still Being Requested? for troubleshooting steps.
