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Driver's License is the wrong metaphor for OpenID. If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at a

Driver's License is the wrong metaphor for OpenID. If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times. OpenID is more like a Von's Club card. An inconvenient scrap of plastic that would just take up space in my wallet so it gets left at home. Every time I go into a Vons, I have to ask the cashier for a new one and it pisses me off that little bit, just like every time I go to StackOverflow I need to dig though my email to figure out what OpenID provider I used to sign up for my account there. Just like the Grocery Store Discount card, where I find myself more driving out of my way to go to a store that doesn't make me use one, I generally don't bother with sites that want me to dig out my OpenID just to use them.

ZoFreX 16y ago
Just a convenience note - you can associate multiple OpenIDs with your StackOverflow account, which might save you remembering which one you used.
philwelch 16y ago
All of my store discount cards work just as well if I give them my phone number instead of the card itself.
WesleyJohnson 16y ago
Just curious: why use more than one OpenID account in the first place? I've genuinely never understood why people would do that. Am I missing something?
- jasonkester 16y ago
  I only have the one that I used to sign up for StackOverflow. Thus far nothing else has required it. Or rather, nothing else that requires it has been so compelling in other ways that I'm willing to put up with OpenID in order to use them. Now that Gmail is a provider, the barrier is lower, but back then you had your pick of a half-dozen fly by night early adopter providers. So anybody who used it back then has at least one worthless OpenID.
- nborgo 16y ago
  With all the little icons, I generally forget which one I clicked in the first place. Then I remember that I used Google's, but forget which email address. It's not so much forgetting because I have a bunch of OpenID accounts, it's that I don't use it enough to remember the one that I do use. Just give me the "Save username and password" option in Firefox and I'm happy.
  - wvenable 16y ago
    Have your saved username and passwords sync to the cloud, and you'll be even happier. Jeff is still beating a still-born horse here -- yes, a problem exists, but OpenID is the wrong solution.
masklinn 16y ago
> If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times. You take a test to get an email address, have to wait until 16 for the privilege and it can be almost arbitrarily revoked?
- Jach 16y ago
  Well, yes. You have to prove you're not a robot by passing a CAPTCHA test, many places (including Gmail) "require" you to be over 13, and from Google's TOS: 13.3 Google may at any time, terminate its legal agreement with you if: So I think the metaphor fits quite nicely, don't you?
  - masklinn 16y ago
    > So I think the metaphor fits quite nicely, don't you? No, I can setup my own MTA, or get a cheap account at a random host which will provide me an MTA, and there are a billion services out there to get email addresses.

ZoFreX 16y ago

Just a convenience note - you can associate multiple OpenIDs with your StackOverflow account, which might save you remembering which one you used.

philwelch 16y ago

All of my store discount cards work just as well if I give them my phone number instead of the card itself.

WesleyJohnson 16y ago

Just curious: why use more than one OpenID account in the first place? I've genuinely never understood why people would do that. Am I missing something?

jasonkester 16y ago
I only have the one that I used to sign up for StackOverflow. Thus far nothing else has required it. Or rather, nothing else that requires it has been so compelling in other ways that I'm willing to put up with OpenID in order to use them. Now that Gmail is a provider, the barrier is lower, but back then you had your pick of a half-dozen fly by night early adopter providers. So anybody who used it back then has at least one worthless OpenID.
nborgo 16y ago
With all the little icons, I generally forget which one I clicked in the first place. Then I remember that I used Google's, but forget which email address. It's not so much forgetting because I have a bunch of OpenID accounts, it's that I don't use it enough to remember the one that I do use. Just give me the "Save username and password" option in Firefox and I'm happy.
- wvenable 16y ago
  Have your saved username and passwords sync to the cloud, and you'll be even happier. Jeff is still beating a still-born horse here -- yes, a problem exists, but OpenID is the wrong solution.

masklinn 16y ago

> If you had an Internet Driver's License, it would be your email address. You always have that with you at all times. You take a test to get an email address, have to wait until 16 for the privilege and it can be almost arbitrarily revoked?

Jach 16y ago
Well, yes. You have to prove you're not a robot by passing a CAPTCHA test, many places (including Gmail) "require" you to be over 13, and from Google's TOS: 13.3 Google may at any time, terminate its legal agreement with you if: So I think the metaphor fits quite nicely, don't you?
- masklinn 16y ago
  > So I think the metaphor fits quite nicely, don't you? No, I can setup my own MTA, or get a cheap account at a random host which will provide me an MTA, and there are a billion services out there to get email addresses.