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let people log in with Twitter and Facebook, to make StackExchange reputations easily exportable to other platforms. StackOverflow should change absolutely not
by neutronicus 16y ago
let people log in with Twitter and Facebook, to make StackExchange reputations easily exportable to other platforms.
StackOverflow should change absolutely nothing about their login process. It is perfect. I anonymously answered one question, and all of a sudden I have a profile. No confirmation e-mail, no Facebook or Twitter crap. Just use the site and bam! you're registered. It remembers me every time I come back and it makes absolutely no fucking attempt to worm its way into my social graph.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jules 16y agoWhat happens if you clear your cookies?
- Tycho 16y agoDoes it really matter? Accounts are just a minor convenience for most users of StackOverflow, they're not the gateways to your content like Facebook.
- jules 16y agoWell, one of the dynamics of stackoverflow is karma points, so I suppose yes.
- pan69 16y agoYou become a new user. Unless you solidify your account before doing so.
- kmontrose 16y agoThere is a way to recover your account if your cookie is lost. http://stackoverflow.com/users/account-recovery http://stackoverflow.com/users/account-recovery (this is linked from /users/login) It does require that you provided a valid e-mail address at some point, which we don't require.
- nepenthe 16y agoIf this mechanism(link to a valid e-mail) is used to recover an account, is this considered a form of registration?
- kmontrose 16y agoNo, you can participate (well, post answers/questions; no rep is gained) as an unregistered user without giving us an e-mail address at all (or even giving us a bogus one, we don't check). If you do provide one, it lets you recover your cookie based account is all. The "account" is as throw away as you want it to be, basically.
- kylec 16y agoI just tried a test post and it won't let me proceed without putting an email address in.
- nepenthe 16y agoIt appears to do a basic regex to validate the e-mail address but does not require a confirmation e-mail to be sent to post comments.
- kmontrose 16y agoAh, my bad; been a long time since I've had to do anything as an unregistered user, mis-remembered. Looking at the code, we do require something that looks like an e-mail, for recovery purposes (I assume, that code predates me by a bit). It is not, however, verified.
- nepenthe 16y agoSorry I was not clear and it is not terribly important. I've just wondered what it actually means to be "registered." If I have recovered my cookie-based account it means the account has been verified by e-mail. I'm just wondering isn't that a form of registration without having to have used OpenID?
- alain94040 16y agoStackOverflow should change absolutely nothing about their login process. It is perfect Maybe it works for you, but I'm still utterly confused about how to login. But hey, I only have about 25 years of coding and online experience. To be fair, it's not SO's fault.
- Simucal 16y agoI can see why a non tech-savvy user would be confused by OpenID but I it surprises me how many programmers are confused by it. On the login page they list a bunch of common providers you can login with if you already have an account with them: Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, etc. Click their icon, type in your credentials. If you don't have an account with one of those or don't wish to use them then it has a big register link to sign up with a myOpenID account.
- chc 16y agoYou're making the same mistake as people who try to get programmers to fix their printer because programmers are "computer people." Competence with one technology does not confer instant familiarity with another — and however clear you might find OpenID, just the array of company logos alone is kind of overwhelming and highly unusual. Pretty much the opposite of "Don't make me think."
- Locke1689 16y agoTo a certain extent, security will always have to make the user think. There's simply no way around that without complete service dictation.
- chc 16y agoYes, but Stack Overflow's signup screen takes more thinking than most sites (by virtue of being different, not to mention its complexity). Amazon's signup is far simpler and it does not seem to be terribly insecure.
- Simucal 16y agoJust be careful with your account in that state. Stackoverflow only knows your account by a cookie right now. You can't log into it from another machine or if you happen to clear your cookies you won't be able to log back in. So it is in your best interest to "solidify" your membership if you care about your account.
- codinghorror 16y agowell, as long as you provide a valid email (we don't check) you can do an account recovery to reinstate your cookie via email. The main limitation of being unregistered is that you can't ever vote on anything -- but you DO accrue other non-voting privileges through reputation like regular users.
- spicyj 16y agoWhy don't you let unregistered users vote?
- mattwijas 16y agoThat would probably make the system more susceptible to gaming by spammers.
- spicyj 16y agoHow does forcing registration help? The main barrier is that you need to answer a couple of questions and get upvotes before you can upvote others.
- tiernano 16y agoI'm guessing (don't know for sure here) its an anti-spam measure...
- bkhl 16y agoSO probably doesn't want too many unregistered users floating around. Also, one of success metrics for an Q&A site is the number of registered users. So, it does make sense to force users to go through almost painless process of registering before they really start engaging in the site.
- gord 16y ago>absolutely no fucking attempt to worm its way into my social graph Quote of the year.
- talbina 16y agoI'm sorry, but am I missing something? They do ask for your email http://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask http://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask , so it's not anonymous anymore.