[OpenID] Purpose of OpenID Foundation and the Elections

[Martin Atkins]

Jack Cleaver wrote:
> Martin Atkins wrote:
>>
>> There is in fact a way to distingish an OpenID URL (or email address,
>> or XRI) from a vanilla one: discovery.
>>
>> The very same mechanism that allows consumers to find the OpenID 
>> provider for an identifier implicitly answers the question "Is this
>> an OpenID identifier?".
>>
>> If discovery fails, the URL you're holding is not an OpenID
>> identifier.
> 
> Yeah, I knew that!
> 
> But it doesn't much help the "AMEX rejected here" crowd, who don't
> happen to possess an OpenID protocol handler (if they did, they could
> accept OpenID).
> 

So I guess the situation you're thinking of goes something along these 
lines:

  * I walk up to the checkout in a store with my items.
  * Checkout clerk rings it up.
  * I hand over my credit card.
  * Clerk sees the "VISA" logo and says "Sorry, we don't accept VISA".

but is this really any different to the following?

  * I walk up to the checkout in a store with my items.
  * Checkout clerk rings it up.
  * I hand over my library card.
  * Clerk says "You can't pay with this".

In both cases I was unable to complete the transaction. Does it really 
matter what the "error message" is? In both cases I know what to do: pay 
with cash instead, probably cursing the store for the inconvenience. 
(or, in our case, create a traditional local user account and sign in 
with that, cursing the site for not accepting OpenID.)