Automattic / Automattic/gravatar

Support Gravatar Hovercard for Fediverse handles in WordPress comments

Open
#206 1 comment 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
361
Forks
125
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

# Feature Request

## Description / Use Case

Hi Automattic team,

I’d like to suggest a feature enhancement for Gravatar hovercards in the context of federated replies via ActivityPub in WordPress.

**Use case:**
When a federated reply is posted to a WordPress comment thread (for example, a reply coming from a Mastodon user via ActivityPub), and the Mastodon account’s handle (e.g., `@username@mastodon.social`) is registered in Gravatar, it would be great if WordPress could display a Gravatar Hovercard when hovering over that reply’s actor handle.

**Why this matters:**

* This would unify the identity experience across WordPress, Gravatar, and Fediverse services.
* Adds richer identity verification and social context for federated comments.
* Supports communities bridging open protocols like ActivityPub with the broader Automattic ecosystem.

**Technical notes:**
Currently, Gravatar hovercards are based on email hash lookups. This feature would require either:

* Enabling Gravatar to associate and query profiles by Fediverse handle (`@user@instance.tld`), or
* Providing a mapping mechanism within WordPress ActivityPub plugin or WordPress comment system to resolve handles to corresponding Gravatar profiles.

**Expected behavior:**
When a federated reply appears in WordPress comments:

* If the actor’s Fediverse handle is associated with a Gravatar account
* Show the Gravatar hovercard (avatar, bio, verified Fediverse handle, etc.) when hovering over the handle

This would be a valuable addition for integrating decentralized social accounts with WordPress-powered sites.

Thanks for considering this!

---

Describe the feature you'd like to see added. Include the potential use case(s) to help us understand its impact.

## Proposed Solution

Have an idea on how to implement this feature? Please share your thoughts or possible approaches.

## Alternatives

Did you consider any alternative solutions or features? Kindly share that information as it helps in thorough understanding and evaluation.

## Additional Information

Feel free to add any other context, like screenshots, examples, or additional comments that could help us understand your feature request better.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

The issue names no files, tests, or implementation entry points. Start by determining whether Fediverse-handle lookup belongs in Gravatar or the WordPress ActivityPub/comment integration; done would require an agreed mapping or API and the specified hovercard behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript, wordpress
Domain
frontend, web-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.