hi gene,
how exactly does one go about submitting code over there? the only thing i can really see might be 'Add issue'? Except that i don't want to report a problem. I modified thematic_comment_link() to add a hook for a default avatar.
// Produces an avatar image with the hCard-compliant photo class
function thematic_commenter_link() {
$commenter = get_comment_author_link();
if ( ereg( '<a[^>]* class=[^>]+>', $commenter ) ) {
$commenter = ereg_replace( '(<a[^>]* class=[\'"]?)', '\\1url ' , $commenter );
} else {
$commenter = ereg_replace( '(<a )/', '\\1class="url "' , $commenter );
}
$avatar_email = get_comment_author_email();
$avatar_size = apply_filters( 'avatar_size', '80' ); // Available filter: avatar_size
$default_avatar = apply_filters( 'default_avatar', ''); // Available filter: default_avatar
$avatar = str_replace( "class='avatar", "class='photo avatar", get_avatar( $avatar_email, $avatar_size, $default_avatar ) );
echo $avatar . ' <span class="fn n">' . $commenter . '</span>';
} // end thematic_commenter_link
then in the child theme the default can be set using
function childtheme_default_avatar() {
return get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/images/default_avatar.png' ;
}
add_action( 'default_avatar', 'childtheme_default_avatar' );