[OpenID] host-meta and "acct:"

[Santosh Rajan]

Hehe Shade, you are not going to get a "+1" for this one. Somebody did give
you one for an earlier post!

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 8:40 PM, SitG Admin
<sysadmin at shadowsinthegarden.com>wrote:

> 3) XRD with <Host> instead of <Subject>
>>
>
> Hypothetical, but plausible, scenario:
>
> A developer realizes they need to indicate something different from
> Subject, but that they may need Subject later on. To avoid that future
> conflict (where they would find themselves forced to declare ActualSubject
> instead of just using Subject!), they use Host instead. Communicating this
> to the 3rd parties they deal with, and getting them to modify their own code
> to interop, is up to the developer :)
>
>
>  4) Someone might come along and decide lets have <Title> instead of
>> <Subject>
>>
>
> They won't get to make a unilateral decision, though. If they can't present
> compelling reasons why anyone ought to switch from using Subject to using
> Title, they'll probably be ignored ;)
>
>
>  5) Anyone can have anything else instead of <Subject>
>>
>
> If they want to, sure. How effective it is may depend on how many others
> they can get to accomodate their approach - and it may depend on how many
> others *don't*. Remember that security through obscurity actually *works*,
> in some cases; if they have an undocumented, hexadeximal-encoded, (weakly)
> encrypted Subject line labeled as another field, 99% of 3rd parties (having
> no reason to even *attempt* to figure out what Subject line IF ANY there is)
> will not pursue that any further.
>
>
>  Is this your idea of future compatibility?
>> Why is it so difficult for people to see that this whole thing is leading
>> to a mess?
>>
>
> We're blinded by this whole idea of "majority consensus".
>
> When you think that the majority's interests are in the actual *usefulness*
> of each spec, as defined by how many 3rd parties can be persuaded to
> practice the same methods (it's all about interoperability), your
> self-interest becomes self-limiting (it's all about enlightened
> self-interest): you don't want to exert too MUCH influence, making something
> perfect for YOU, because then it'll be too much trouble for everyone *else*
> (the Way of D'Shai is all about *balance*). The more accepting you can be of
> those who are different from you (it's all about tolerance), the more likely
> you are to receive cooperation instead of competition (Microsoft called this
> "Embrace and Extend"; pay it forward).
>
> -Shade
>



-- 
http://hi.im/santosh
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