Useless OpenID uses…
So I’m really happy to be seeing a lot more sites out there using OpenID. It’s great that there are lots of people really embracing the concept. What’s really getting on my nerves, is the half-a$$ed implementations of OpenID I’m seeing out there.
LiveJournal, the place where OpenID was born still won’t allow you to actually LOG IN with an OpenID. But, they’ll gladly give you a free OpenID to use as you see fit… since, of course, it’s much easier to remember someguy019287439632.livejournal.com instead of myrealname.myopenid.com or something else equally weird, right? Yes, thank you LJ, for your wonderful contributions to the OpenID community.
And let’s not forget the wonderful folks over at Technorati. They had a great big announcement a little while ago talking about how they’re going to so graciously support poor little OpenID. Turns out they’re nice enough to allow you to claim your blog using OpenID. So now that I can have a single login for all sites, here’s how using my OpenID with Technorati will work:
- Go to technorati and find my blog
- Select “Claim this blog”
- Log in with my OpenI… err… hmm… I can’t actually LOG IN with my OpenID? Ok…
- So… create a new user account with Technorati?
- Pick yet another random username to use
- Pick yet another random password, that I’ll probably forget in 20 minutes
- Log in and select “Use OpenID Claim”
- Wait… Use OpenID Claim isn’t there… hmm… ok…
- Maybe it doesn’t like my OpenID Wordpress plugin… I know, I’ll try my LiveJournal, like in the example…
- I’ll just type that in, hit claim blog and…
- Nothing…
- Storm away in disgust and write an angry blog-post about it…
Yes, thank you Technorati. Your OpenID support has really made my surfing experience so much more pleasant…
Hello Alex,
February 12th, 2007 at 3:23 amI abolutely agree that the OpenID implementations out there are confusing and inconsistent. Hopefully things will get better soon. As far as I can see, YOUR OpenID implementation seems to work perfectly.
We confirm your submission to the “The OpenID Directory” with this comment.
Thanks and congratulations!
Thomas
[...] Useless OpenID uses… [...]
February 12th, 2007 at 9:11 pmI think livejournal allows to comment using other open ids.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:36 amIt does, wherever it allows anonymous comments…
Good point, Alex.
February 14th, 2007 at 2:11 pmAha, I’ve found a place that actually accepts open ID! This is the first time I’ve used it properly and it works rather nicely.
Other than the novelty factor of logging in somewhere, I wanted to add that I had a similar annoyance with wordpress.com who have set up an openID server, but like the above examples won’t let you login using openID. Grrr.
My next task will be to find out how to add this to my own personal site so I can complain and not be hypocritical!
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:53 pmLooks like you’re using Drupal. While I haven’t used it myself, I know that there is a Drupal OpenID plugin available. Let me know if you manage to get it working so I can check it out. I haven’t seen an openid-enabled Drupal site yet.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm