New Release: PeepSo & Gecko 3.1.1.0

Introducing Name Based Avatars (Early Access) and small improvements to photos mobile lightbox.

Photo lightbox improvements

Since our previous release, notifications related to photos now open a relevant photo in lightbox view. We have improved this mechanic for mobile devices, making sure clicking these notifications automatically brings the comment section of the relevant photo lightbox into view. We have also improved the comment section by adding a small thumbnail – so users can easily tell, what photo these comments are related to.

Early Access: Name Based Avatars

This small but powerful new feature aims to replace the old gendered default avatars with ones based on user initials or username. For users with no custom avatar uploaded, instead of plain male / female / neutral face, PeepSo will generate character based avatars with a random background. The admin can control the color scheme in a limited way – by setting the “brightness” of the background and the font and/or opting for a grayscale solution.

This results in a bit more personal look and feel to your Community, and avoids “exposing” user genders through imagery. Perhaps the most relevant use case here is the “latest members” widget which tended to have a lot of similarly looking images, since new users are less likely to have a custom avatar already.

Holidays Slowdown

Please do note that as we are approaching the end of the year we will be having our annual slowdown in support. It might take a tad longer to get replies to your tickets so please do be patient with us. It has been a challenging year for everyone and it seems like all of us could use some rest.

This release also the last one of the year. Thank you for all your support and involvement in helping us make PeepSo better. None of this would have happened without you. See you next year!

Brought to you by Matt Jaworski

I am a professional nerd with **over fifteen years of experience** in the field of Open Source web development. Before [PeepSo](https://PeepSo.com) I was a contractor and have helped build successful businesses around the world, including USA, UK, Germany, Indonesia, and Malaysia. A couple of years leading up to founding PeepSo, I was involved with JomSocial – a social networking extension for Joomla. Stepping up from the role of a contractor to a business owner, I became [PeepSo](https://PeepSo.com) founder and Chief Technology Officer. I strive to build beautiful, fast, and functional software that **empowers users to build their own digital tribes with full autonomy and freedom** often not available on mainstream social networking media. In 2023 we spun off a new company to launch [Awedesk](https://awedesk.com) – a complete ticket-based client support solution for WordPress. I also created [ListoWP](https://LIstoWP.com), a modern to-do plugin for WordPress which is now evolving into a project management tool.