Introduction
So, as I mentioned before, I’m doing renovations. One of the features I had wanted to install was the ability to use OpenID to leave comments on entries. OpenID is a system for using a single online ID across multiple services. For instance, everyone who has an AOL Instant Messenger account has an OpenID. The linked FAQ gives more detail, but it’s not exactly concise, so I’ll try to give a short, simple definition. An OpenID identifier is a way of identifying yourself to a website that supports the standard, without having to create a seperate account on that website. For example, every AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! IM, Google, and Microsoft Windows Vista* users all have OpenIDs** (though Google’s support is unofficial at this time). So if one of these users goes to a site that uses OpenID (such as Digg, the he or she can use their OpenID-enabled username and password from AIM or whatever else, and be logged in. Creating an account at Digg is unnecessary.
Why is this cool? I don’t know about you, but I have literally dozens of accounts/memberships on various sites throughout the interwebs. Remembering each user/password combo for each of them is a major pain. I let my browser handle it, and it’s all done automatically, but all this means is that I’ve forgotten what my actual username and password settings are for these sites. If anything ever happened to my Mac OS X Keychain, I’d be, if not necessarily screwed, majorly inconvenienced. However, if all of these sites supported OpenID, I’d just need to remember one password, and that would actually be my password/ID combination across everything. Furthermore, on many sites, full accounts are never actually created for OpenID-based users***. All that matters is that the OpenID is valid and the person using it thus exists and is unique.
* I cannot believe I’m complementing Windows Vista. Surely it’s a symptom of fatigue or budding senility.
** These are not the only sites that have OpenID support. At all. Here’s a gigantic list.
*** Some sites, however, will require the user to record information used to enable certain services. This depends on what exactly the site does. A message board, for instance, will need to know certain things, like display settings and so forth.
OpenID and I
Why am I interested in this? I like the idea of regular readers registering on my blog for comments, so that I can know it’s really them I’m talking to, and not just someone pretending to be them via anonymous posting. At the same time, I recognize that creating another userID/pass combo is at best annoying, and at worst, a total turnoff that will keep them from commenting at all. Hence the option to use an OpenID, which a good number of people will likely have.
Those who criticize the OpenID system are worried it will kill anonymity on the internet, as blog admins might deactivate anonymous posting in an attempt to eliminate spam comments. This is an especially unfortunate mindset, as this approach won’t even necessarily work. I personally will not disable anonymous posting because I recognize it has value–many people do not feel comfortable leaving any sort of personally identifiable information on any website. But I do have to individually approve anonymous comments, and make sure my spam blocker doesn’t kill anonymous comments that are in fact legit. This can be time consuming (and would be for sure if I had more traffic), so I’m all for any system that gives people more options for authenticating themselves. Authenticating saves me time and gets comments visible faster–and eliminates the risk of me accidentally tagging something substantial as spam and deleting it.
So, yeah. The OpenID Wordpress Plugin I installed was buggy and just created a Wordpress userID and pass when an OpenID was entered at login, which sort of defeats the point. Ideally, the system would just note that the person trying to login has a valid OpenID and that would be that. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read this sort of functionality would require redesigning certain bits of the code. There’s an ongoing effort to get this implemented. I’ll be watching the voting closely.
[tags]OpenID, AIM, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Digg, Google, Wordpress, blogs[/tags]