OpenID

[rhythmaning]

I was just browsing a friend's blog, and he has OpenID set up as one of the options to leave details when commenting.

I remember people in my f-list talking about OpenID a while back, but it washed over me; this time I decided to investigate.

However, the website doesn't really tell my WHY I would want OpenID - and I can't really work it out. Aside from saving me keying my details in when logging into various sites, what do I gain? Let's face it, I'm not that lazy - and most of the sites I use remember my details - so why do I want - or need - OpenID?

Also, the OpenID website says that if I have an LJ username, or a flickr username, or one of many others, too, I already have an OpenID. So I tried my LJ username in the OpenID login space on my friend's comment box: and it didn't recognise me... So how do I actually use it?

Incidentally, my LJ username and my flickr (=Yahoo!) username are different, because when I registered with flickr, my name had already gone. Of course, this might be why OpenID didn't work...

http://openid.net/get/

Comments

[matgb]

And in addition they know it's someone logged into LJ as you, so either it is you or someone has nicked your password.

A number of blogs get 'fake' comments with people putting in name/url for blogs that aren't theirs. I like it as it stops sock puppetting and for the blog owner can reduce spam (I tend to require registration or an OpenID login on sites I set up as it saves on dodgy comments from idiots).

You'll also sometimes get problems because LJ was one of the first sites to be an OpenID provider and is using OpenID1, a lot of sites, especially Yahoo, use OpenID2, so Yahoo users can't log in to LJ all the time, which is annoying.

Another advantage is if your friend logs in here using their OpenID, you can add them to let them read protected entries, which a few of my friends have done.