[sldev] OpenID & SSL certificates

[Argent Stonecutter]

On 30-Sep-2007, at 12:34, Matthew Dowd wrote:
> The reason for using OpenID or a similar system is two fold:
>
> i) they allow you to use the same id for accessing other web  
> applications - this of course depends entirely on how widespread  
> their use is elsewhere

That's only a plus in this case if you consider the SL client to be  
"a web application", and whether you actually want to use the same ID  
for the SL client as any web applications you might happen to be  
logged in to.

> ii) and for me this is the interesting one - identity brokering.

In the current SL environment this is a strong negative for me...  
even without the issue of them picking a marketing company to do the  
authentication (which I can see OpenID being an advantage for). If  
they'd made this a requirement two and a half years ago when they  
dropped the requirement of a signup fee, maybe, but the events since  
then have made impossible to get back to an adult grid without  
massive disruptions.

They really need to change the whole basis of accounts and  
identities. Instead of logging on as "Argent Stonecutter" or "Argent  
David", I should be able to log in as "70216.1076" (or whatever token  
I choose) and then select whether I'm going to go in world as my  
primary account, or my alt, or whatever. Keep the in-world stuff like  
inventory and 'wallets' separate, sure, but otherwise the world- 
visible agent/avatar name is just a 'screen name'. One US$ credit  
line, one payment source, maybe an account level wallet so you don't  
have to designate one 'screen name' as a mule.

That would remove a whole bunch of complexity, and probably reduce  
their bookkeeping a bunch because they would only have to keep track  
of one account instead of N alts. And they could keep counting  
"screen names" for their statistics. And they could quit being coy  
about how many alts people should have, because they'd all be one to  
them.

And, yes, it would also remove a number of the objections to the  
original idea.