[OpenID] Blog Posts about OpenID

[SitG Admin]

>Sometimes there are misconceptions about OpenID or questions raised, 
>either in the posts or comments.

I'll address just the former here. Answering the raised questions is 
a good idea.

>So it would be great if people knowledgeable about OpenID could 
>answer questions, give advice,... and promote OpenID, of course.

I recently considered posting here a link to a blog post I'd seen (in 
the comments section) which compared OpenID to an online password 
storage and retrieval service. In the end, I elected not to; the post 
was about a month old, and the last on that particular entry. What 
were the odds that the person who made this comment was still 
checking back on that page for further updates? Not likely. And 
others? The probability is higher since they could be browsing the 
archives on that site, but it still isn't likely. The single mention 
would be enough for a search engine to index it, though.

I see three reasons not to do this:

1) Posting a link would increase the chances of simultaneously 
written comments getting posted one after another, whereas ordinarily 
there is such an interval between our discoveries of the page that 
any dialogue going on will be protracted enough to generally assure 
that we can see the comments of anyone who saw it before us. Posting 
a link and saying "But nobody go here yet, we need to have someone 
'claim' the page so we don't ALL answer it." would be kind of 
self-defeating.
2) It may be off-topic for the main blog post. I think people could 
get a bit ticked off with us if they found that all the OpenID spam 
taking place on their blogs was actually the result of a deliberate 
effort - one that had an opportunity to be more considerate ;)
3) If the existing supporters are too quick to leap to OpenID's 
defense, it may give the impression that we're the *only* ones who 
care; it might create the appearance of a propaganda campaign that 
isn't convincing any of the "regular" people.

I know it's trickier to educate people *without* commenting on the 
very blogs (and particular pages) where these misconceptions are 
expressed, but as OpenID grows in popularity, I think it's important 
to let the source of blog comments reflect this; ordinary people, 
regular visitors to the blog, should be the ones displaying their 
knowledge.

While waiting for this to occur naturally, we may find that the post 
has become too old for most readers to check back on it, and any 
response there won't do much good anyway.

If some of us were to privately (decide to) commit to Googling for 
comments every few days, and responding to them if noone else had 
yet, the intervals might still remain reasonable.

-Shade