[Python-Dev] Python wiki

[Scott Dial]

On 9/25/2010 5:37 PM, Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>> Unfortunately, most sites using OpenID seem have an awkward login
>> process. Maybe it's just me (I don't use OpenID much) but I expect
>> that without a lot more handholding of new users, OpenID actually
>> turns more people away than any other registration/login process.
> 
> So how do you like the OpenID login of PyPI, which has a Google,
> MyOpenID and Launchpad icon, which users need to click on to create
> in account or login?
> 
> The ultra geeks demanded and got a separate page where they
> can enter long URLs.

Having just tried this out. A few comments:

  1) Registering via OpenID is a bit clumsy since there is a "Register"
link that does not mention OpenID.

  2) The URL registered with the OpenID provider is a bit of a wart:
"http://pypi.python.org/pypi?:action=openid_return" vs.
"http://bitbucket.org/"

  3) The email I received asked me to "Complete your Cheese Shop
registration" which I think is just an oversight since the relabeling to
pypi.

  4) It's a bit clumsy that "Login" pops up an HTTP Authentication
prompt, which is useless to someone who only has never set a password
and relies only on an OpenID credential. Furthermore, the 401 page does
not provide a quick way to get to use OpenID.

In general, I am pretty happy with pypi's support of OpenID considering
it allowed me to use my own provider, which often has not been the case
with other sites. My experience with trying to adopt OpenID as a way of
life has been poor mostly because many sites fail to support anything
but a few major OpenID providers (e.g., Google). I appreciate has a
fast-path for those providers and yet let's me still use my own.
Although, I think it would be nice if I didn't have to go to another
page to do that, but I may be biased by having such a short OpenID URI.

-- 
Scott Dial
scott at scottdial.com
scodial at cs.indiana.edu