<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/20/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">John Panzer</b> <<a href="mailto:jpanzer@aol.net">jpanzer@aol.net</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>
<font face="Arial,sans-serif"><font size="2"><span type="cite">Kaliya *
wrote on 10/20/2006, 11:57 AM:</span>
</font></font>
<span class="q"><p><font face="Arial,sans-serif" size="2"></font></p>
<blockquote type="cite" style="border-left: thin solid blue; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 0pt;"><font face="Arial,sans-serif" size="2">I think it is a terrible idea.<br>
<br>
1) If you put something out into the market that looks like an e-mail
it will be used like an e-mail. I have personal experience with this. <br>
<br>
I had a AIM handle for the Mac part of the universe <a href="mailto:kaliya@mac.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kaliya@mac.com</a> (it was not an e-mail
address) but because it looked like one people used it like one and I
basically had to go to .mac and pay for an account so that the wires
did not cross.
</font></blockquote></span>
<font size="2"><font face="Arial,sans-serif">This came out of the
discussions we have about a smooth migration path for our users at
AOL. In our case the <a href="mailto:user@example.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">user@example.com</a> nickname is also a resolvable
email address, though it may not be the primary mail account of the
user. I'd suggest that as a best practice, anywhere that a
<a href="mailto:user@example.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">user@example.com</a> nickname is used, it should also be a resolvable email
address. And there should always be an option to not use something
that looks like an email address.</font></font></div></blockquote><div><br>Why not just give them @aol*username. or <a href="http://www.aol.com/username">http://www.aol.com/username</a>. Both are valid openID and it is NOT and e-mail address. I bet you have a tone of users who simply have AOL handles for IM and don't want to activiate or deal with e-mail systems.
<br><br>I get that your users are 'naive' and don't get new things and some don't know how to scroll. BUT YOU CAN EDUCATE THEM. at one point e-mail didn't exist and we had to teach people about that. I explain this stuff to normal folks all the time these days. I think regular folks are willing to learn this stuff to make the web safer and more convenient for them.
<br><br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><span class="q"><blockquote type="cite" style="border-left: thin solid blue; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 0pt;">
<font face="Arial,sans-serif" size="2">2) I think OpenID is new and needs a
new way to identify folks. And it is our job to teach people about this
new way. Lots of services give people homepages within their
spaces...myspace, AIMpages etc. so they can use those URL's if they
don't have one yet they can get one. </font></blockquote></span>
<font size="2"><font face="Arial,sans-serif">There's a bootstrapping
problem here. It's very, very hard to promote the use of something
that requires a more complex login flow to replace something that is
very simple (albeit limited and in its own silo). How can we cross
this chasm? Our suggestion is to support existing practice of
<a href="mailto:user@example.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">user@example.org</a> in a standard way, </font></font></div></blockquote><div><br>This "e-mail is the standards way" is false. It really is not user fridnely. I resent sites asking me for my e-mail and requiring me to use it as a login. I have at least 4 e-mails. I use different ones a different sites and can't remember which one I use were. I am all for figuring out Bootstrapping but I think approach is miss guided.
<br><br></div></div><br>