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OK so I tried to sign up to your site with BID and am pretty confused: I'm using Chrome. Don't know if that affects things. Anyway. Hit Browser ID, asks me fo

OK so I tried to sign up to your site with BID and am pretty confused: I'm using Chrome. Don't know if that affects things. Anyway. Hit Browser ID, asks me for my email address. OK fine, add that in. It then says (quickly, and temporarily as it's an AJAX load), that it's looking up my email provider (Google Apps). It then asks me for my password. So now I'm totally confused. I've not signed up with your site or BID before, so I dont know if it wants my GAPPS password or a new password. I don't feel like I want to put in my GApps password, as there is no Google branding anywhere and the URL is not Google. So I try putting in my GAPPS password, because I use 2 factor, and it doesn't work. Most likely because I use 2 factor, and I can't authenticate with just my standard GAPPS password. So it failed. I guess I'm an edge case as most people don't enable 2-factor on their Google account, but I was still really confused when it asked for my email password. EDIT: Same thing happened with Firefox version whatever the latest one is. I'd say it's completely confusing, all in all.

jstalin 14y ago
I just tried it and once I entered my email address, it then asked: "Next, choose a new password you'll use when you sign in with Persona." Not sure why you're confused.
- jackalope 14y ago
  From https://developer.mozilla.org/en/BrowserID/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en/BrowserID/ "Website operators still get a verified email address for their users, and users only have to remember a single password. BrowserID is also intuitive, since email addresses are commonly understood to be associated with identities." Mozilla is really stressing the "email address/single password" concept. If they really mean "email address/separate dedicated Persona password" then they should make this clear.
  - callahad 14y ago
    The language around the number of passwords you need is really hard to get right. If you have suggestions, please let me know. In a world where every email provider supports Persona natively, Persona truly is a "no new passwords" authentication system, since it delegates to your provider. If your email address isn't supported, Persona asks you to create a single new password at login.persona.org. You can then add many other unsupported addresses, without needing more passwords. So it's an "at most one new password" system.
    - uvtc 14y ago
      Simply always refer to the Persona password as "Persona password". > In a world where every email provider supports Persona natively, Persona truly is a "no new passwords" authentication system, since it delegates to your provider. I don't know what this means. I won't give Persona my gmail/yahoo-mail email password.
      - callahad 14y ago
        Yeah, it's confusing. If your email provider is supported, your browser talks directly to your email provider, without Mozilla in the middle. We don't want your passwords, honest! :) You can try out the supported email provider workflow by signing up for a dummy account at eyedee.me, and then using that account to sign in at, say, 123done.org.
        jackalope 14y ago
        Wait, if this system works with a dummy account, then a valid email address isn't necessary at all. Any domain can set up an identity provider to support user@domain. Why drag email providers into the discussion, then? It confuses everyone.
        stickfigure 14y ago
        It confuses you because you are a technologist. For 99.99% of the world, user@domain == email address. "Sign in with your email address" gets the point across. "Sign in with your user identity at a controlling DNS authority" may be more accurate, but will actually confuse everyone.
nodata 14y ago
> It then asks me for my password. It asks you to create a password. (admittedly it could be a clearer what you are creating a password for, i.e. persona.org)
SCdF 14y ago
I got confused by this as well. What's happening is that the email address he used already has a Persona account. If your email address isn't known to Persona it will ask you to create a password, which is cool. Otherwise, it will just bring up a password box with your email address just above it. I must have used BrowserID once when it was launched, because what the OP got happened to me and I was just as confused. It might not be a problem in the future when it's more well known, but it would be nice for it to have an indication that they want your Persona password, and not your email password.

jstalin 14y ago

I just tried it and once I entered my email address, it then asked: "Next, choose a new password you'll use when you sign in with Persona." Not sure why you're confused.

jackalope 14y ago
From https://developer.mozilla.org/en/BrowserID/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en/BrowserID/ "Website operators still get a verified email address for their users, and users only have to remember a single password. BrowserID is also intuitive, since email addresses are commonly understood to be associated with identities." Mozilla is really stressing the "email address/single password" concept. If they really mean "email address/separate dedicated Persona password" then they should make this clear.
- callahad 14y ago
  The language around the number of passwords you need is really hard to get right. If you have suggestions, please let me know. In a world where every email provider supports Persona natively, Persona truly is a "no new passwords" authentication system, since it delegates to your provider. If your email address isn't supported, Persona asks you to create a single new password at login.persona.org. You can then add many other unsupported addresses, without needing more passwords. So it's an "at most one new password" system.
  - uvtc 14y ago
    Simply always refer to the Persona password as "Persona password". > In a world where every email provider supports Persona natively, Persona truly is a "no new passwords" authentication system, since it delegates to your provider. I don't know what this means. I won't give Persona my gmail/yahoo-mail email password.
    - callahad 14y ago
      Yeah, it's confusing. If your email provider is supported, your browser talks directly to your email provider, without Mozilla in the middle. We don't want your passwords, honest! :) You can try out the supported email provider workflow by signing up for a dummy account at eyedee.me, and then using that account to sign in at, say, 123done.org.
      - jackalope 14y ago
        Wait, if this system works with a dummy account, then a valid email address isn't necessary at all. Any domain can set up an identity provider to support user@domain. Why drag email providers into the discussion, then? It confuses everyone.
        stickfigure 14y ago
        It confuses you because you are a technologist. For 99.99% of the world, user@domain == email address. "Sign in with your email address" gets the point across. "Sign in with your user identity at a controlling DNS authority" may be more accurate, but will actually confuse everyone.

nodata 14y ago

> It then asks me for my password. It asks you to create a password. (admittedly it could be a clearer what you are creating a password for, i.e. persona.org)

SCdF 14y ago

I got confused by this as well. What's happening is that the email address he used already has a Persona account. If your email address isn't known to Persona it will ask you to create a password, which is cool. Otherwise, it will just bring up a password box with your email address just above it. I must have used BrowserID once when it was launched, because what the OP got happened to me and I was just as confused. It might not be a problem in the future when it's more well known, but it would be nice for it to have an indication that they want your Persona password, and not your email password.