No more usernames!

I’ve gotten to the point where I have left a site simply because they asked me to come up with a username to identify myself. It is too hard to keep them all straight. Please, don’t make me come up with another one. There are a couple of alternatives that work well.

The first is to use email/password. I don’t have to worry about someone else taking my name and I’m not likely to forget it. The second option is to use OpenID with the same advantages. It can be used with or without a password since the OpenID protocol does incorporate its own authentication.

It isn’t quite as easy as it seems at first. There are privacy concerns. Email address or OpenID cannot be direct replacements for the old username concept. It should only be used by me to identify myself to the site and should not be shown publicly. A screen name can be used for that.