[wp-hackers] Re: GSoC 2008 Proposal: Core OpenID Support

[Ronald Heft]

I have reread your response, and I still think you're misunderstanding me,
but I see where you're confused now.
Yes, I cannot segregate the user system with OpenID from comments, and I am
not thinking of doing so. What I'm referring to is the way current OpenID
plugins work.

Current OpenID plugins usually take advantage of the URI field
in anonymous comment forms to enable OpenID commenting. A user with an
OpenID account would only fill out that one field, type their comment, and
click submit. Then, the plugin would complete the login process by either
registering a new user, or logging in that OpenID user.

What I'm talking about is completely forgetting that concept. I not only
feel that would encourage OpenID comments over anonymous ones, but I think
it's terrible user interface design. In my implementation a user could not
simply enter their OpenID in an anonymous comment form. They would have to
create a WordPress account to do so.

I feel this would discourage OpenID logins on existing anonymous comment
forms, yet still allow for added convenience should a site require
registration. I think is the best of both worlds. There is no encouragement
of OpenID for comments, and OpenID is used in its proper form,
authenticating user logins.

In fact, if user registration is disabled like it is for 99% of WordPress
websites, OpenID would have no effect on the commenter. The only person who
could use OpenID would be the blog administrator who has an existing
account.

Should user registration be enabled, the only scenario where a user could
use OpenID to comment, then what's the difference from commenting from a
user account logged in the traditional way, then commenting from an account
logged in with OpenID. I see absolutely no difference.

Does that make sense now?

On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 11:27 AM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 9:47 PM, Ronald Heft <ron at cavemonkey50.com> wrote:
> > Otto, I am curious about your response to my last reply. Do you
> understand
> >  what I'm talking about now?
>
> Ronald, I fully understood what you were talking about before, I
> simply disagreed with it. You might want to reread my response to you,
> as I did not misunderstand your idea in the first place.
>
> You can't really enable OpenID for login/registration only. Commenting
> is part and parcel of the user system. They're not separate enough for
> what you're suggesting to make any sense.
>
> -Otto
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>



-- 
Ronald Heft, Jr.
Information Sciences and Technology
Pennsylvania State University

cavemonkey50.com
9rules Network