4 ms·

Can we please get the entire internet to agree to stop using email addresses as usernames. It's not a user, its an email address!

Dylan16807 14y ago
How is that going to help? Are people going to be expected to use a unique username per site? And password recovery is still going to let someone take over.
- modularunit 14y ago
  It wont solve the problem, it also would not have prevented THIS issue. However -- many, many people use one email address for more or less everything in their lives. It's best if someone has no pieces of the puzzle, rather then have it half solved for them already. Especially when it's something like your first and last name as part of the address.
pbreit 14y ago
Probably not. Emails make terrific usernames because they are unique, easy to remember, double as a communication identifier and make registration slightly easier. And I'm not exactly sure how that would help in this situation. Are you suggesting that iCloud and Gmail login with usernames (different from your email address)?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pizza 14y ago
With every platform, there is compromise between convenience and security; when your platform has to reach many, many non-tech-y people, convenience is preferred.
- eupharis 14y ago
  There are easy trade-offs one can make between convenience and security. For example, identity verification on the phone with the last four digits of a credit card (Apple). But then there are policies and technology that increase BOTH convenience and security. Say the difference between using SSH these days versus using, say, paper and an Enigma machine. The inconvenience of Google Authenticator is minimal and the security provided is huge.
alttag 14y ago
On the contrary, for a great many sites (low impact) I'm happy that they finally figured out to use my email address as a username. As a usability feature, it's much nicer than having to guess at whether my standard usernames are taken.
- durin42 14y ago
  There are many problems with this. Among them that I have some iTunes purchases associated with an email account that hasn't existed in /years/. There's no way to rename an Apple account. This same problem exists on most sites that use email as username - if your email address of choice ever changes, you're SOL on having a single identity anymore.
  - brigade 14y ago
    You can change your primary email address, renaming the account, at http://appleid.apple.com http://appleid.apple.com
  - derekp7 14y ago
    Not only that, but I have my own domain name which forwards anything@mydomain.com to my primary email. And to keep spam under control, I use a unique email for each (low impact) service. Therefore, I often forget which email I used when signing up for that particular service (unless they sent me a conformation mail, then I can usually dig it up).
    - bstpierre 14y ago
      If you use example.com@mydomain.com as the email address for your login to example.com, then they're easy to remember.

Dylan16807 14y ago

How is that going to help? Are people going to be expected to use a unique username per site? And password recovery is still going to let someone take over.

modularunit 14y ago
It wont solve the problem, it also would not have prevented THIS issue. However -- many, many people use one email address for more or less everything in their lives. It's best if someone has no pieces of the puzzle, rather then have it half solved for them already. Especially when it's something like your first and last name as part of the address.

pbreit 14y ago

Probably not. Emails make terrific usernames because they are unique, easy to remember, double as a communication identifier and make registration slightly easier. And I'm not exactly sure how that would help in this situation. Are you suggesting that iCloud and Gmail login with usernames (different from your email address)?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

pizza 14y ago

With every platform, there is compromise between convenience and security; when your platform has to reach many, many non-tech-y people, convenience is preferred.

eupharis 14y ago
There are easy trade-offs one can make between convenience and security. For example, identity verification on the phone with the last four digits of a credit card (Apple). But then there are policies and technology that increase BOTH convenience and security. Say the difference between using SSH these days versus using, say, paper and an Enigma machine. The inconvenience of Google Authenticator is minimal and the security provided is huge.

alttag 14y ago

On the contrary, for a great many sites (low impact) I'm happy that they finally figured out to use my email address as a username. As a usability feature, it's much nicer than having to guess at whether my standard usernames are taken.

durin42 14y ago
There are many problems with this. Among them that I have some iTunes purchases associated with an email account that hasn't existed in /years/. There's no way to rename an Apple account. This same problem exists on most sites that use email as username - if your email address of choice ever changes, you're SOL on having a single identity anymore.
- brigade 14y ago
  You can change your primary email address, renaming the account, at http://appleid.apple.com http://appleid.apple.com
- derekp7 14y ago
  Not only that, but I have my own domain name which forwards anything@mydomain.com to my primary email. And to keep spam under control, I use a unique email for each (low impact) service. Therefore, I often forget which email I used when signing up for that particular service (unless they sent me a conformation mail, then I can usually dig it up).
  - bstpierre 14y ago
    If you use example.com@mydomain.com as the email address for your login to example.com, then they're easy to remember.