Can I Only Support Open Id? 3

Posted by Steven Hammond Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:22:00 GMT

I am putting the finishing touches on a web site to provide some tools and material for table top role playing games.

I am leaning towards only supporting login through OpenID.

Why, you ask? What about users that don’t have OpenIds?

That’s a good question. DHH spelled out the advantages of OpenId here. This is why I’m supporting. I could choose to offer traditional registration with a userid and password, managed by me. From my perspective, that’s more code that I have to maintain and it undoes many of the advantages I was supposed to gain by offering OpenId.

From a users perspective, if they don’t have an OpenId they will have to fill out a registration form on my site. There isn’t much additional effort to have them to get an OpenId which they can use on many sites.

In fact I can use myopenid’s affliate site to make it even easier for them.

By only supporting OpenId everybody wins. I don’t have to manage passwords and logins and related code and users, if they have to signup, get a shiney new OpenID.

Comment below and let me know where I’m wrong?

Steve