LJ - Purging Accounts = Even More Broken OpenID

[thorfinn]

Hello, especially to anyone reading me who is on LiveJournal. LJ have recently started purging accounts that are idle inactive/suspended (Edited for accuracy).

This means that those account names can be claimed by people other than the original owner. (ETA: This has already been the case since 2005 with deleted accounts and renames, apparently, but I failed to notice that.)

Unfortunately, this fundamentally breaks the trust relationship of OpenID - which is based around the URL of the logging in site. Essentially, I cannot trust that the OpenID user http://thorfinn.livejournal.com/ will remain to be the original user, without continuously checking that that is so. I can't do that for more than a few users, so essentially, my only effective solution is to be unable to trust any OpenID from livejournal.com.

So, because I cannot trust OpenIDs from livejournal.com, I cannot allow those OpenIDs to access my DW content. This means if you are on LJ, you will be unable to see my locked posts on DW, even if you log in using OpenID.

Most of you will get to read the post anyway, because I will keep cross-posting to LJ, but as I will not be allowing comments on LJ, there will be no commenting.

In short, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but due to the lack of security of LJ OpenID introduced made even worse by this new policy, I can't allow LJ OpenIDs access to Dreamwidth directly.

If you wish to discuss anything in my locked posts, then come to Dreamwidth. For further references, see:

• my post on why I dumped LJ in the first place
• A guide to Dreamwidth for LiveJournal users
• DW Codesharing for obtaining an invite code

Comments

[ms_kismet]

I guess that mean that I should get you to add my DW account at some point in time then :)

I don't know how much I'll really use this as you, Sharplittlteeth and Qamar are really the only ones I know how are really using the system and I'm more reading/commenting than posting currently anyway.

That may change one day, but right now, it's a split deck, so I'll keep on doing what I'm doing until I can't. :)

[thorfinn]

(-:

I could maintain my own blogging by hand (with the odd bit of script programming), and have the data backups sufficient to recreate all of my blog content elsewhere. The reason I don't is that I prefer to pay someone else to do the work of software engineering and sysadmin hosting, hence a paid account.

So given I choose to have a paid account, it's a simple choice for me to supporting the rather excellent (and continuously improving) software development processes of DW rather than supporting the rather poor (and continuously degrading) software development processes of LJ.

I'm not *gone* from LJ - and have no intent of deleting my account there or any such thing. I just refuse to support them with money.

[gths]

Well, fortunately I haven't had to give money to whichever band of clowns currently owns LJ for a while, since I got a permanent account five years ago or whenever that was. Certainly long ago that I've gotten my money's worth and that it's probably been spent. Still got a few people on the LJ who are all "well I'm not getting a DW account just because you all are", but keeping the two synched is pretty easy.

[ms_kismet]

I fully understood your (and many other peoples) choice to move. I'm just a lazy blogger who just hasn't been bothered to do the same myself as yet. The configuration and setup involved with fully migrating over is rather time consuming from what I've seen so far and sadly, I don't have the time online that I used to anymore. Real life is getting in the way!

I figure, right now, I'm not paying LJ money anymore and eventually I may migrate over fully, but for now, at least I can comment without worrying about openID from lj not being fantastic.

[thorfinn]

Actually, it's very easy. Just set up the crossposting interface, start using DW to post instead of LJ, you're done. DW to LJ Crossposting FAQ: http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=130

It's best to run the importer to import all old entries first, assuming you plan to import content at some point, but that's also very easy. LJ to DW Importing FAQ: http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=127