Comments on: Ficlets.com: Round-robin writing, Web 2.0-style

By: Kevin Lawver

Kevin Lawver — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:57:35 +0000

Branko, we do have some problems with OpenID at the moment, and I’d love to help you out. I found your e-mail address on your homepage and will reach out with an e-mail in a couple minutes. And yes, sometimes I do stupid things – thanks for pointing them out.

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:33:58 +0000

I’ve already got an OpenID. It doesn’t work with Ficlets. I tested my OpenID both with a Livejournal blog (OpenID was invented by a Livejournal developer) and with the official test tool, and it worked with both. Just not with Ficlets.

Anyway, that’s not the main part of my complaint. The main part is just about horrible usability: the system is broken, but in order to tell the major stakeholder that the system is broken, the system needs to be unbroken. That’s just stupid. The (sub)system to report problems should be independent from the (sub)system that is afflicted by these problems, and it isn’t.

By: Chris Meadows

Chris Meadows — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:22:59 +0000

You can get a free non-AOL login via GetOpenID.com. All you need is an email address to receive the confirmation. (And if you don't have one you feel comfortable exposing, then you can go to GMail and make one.)

By: Robert Nagle

Robert Nagle — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:14:04 +0000

a little background. The developer (a friend of mine actually who I run into at SXSW every year) works for AOL and started this little thing as a side project. I seriously doubt it has much to do with AOL.

I wouldn’t fret too much about AOL login. Hey, doesn’t every single bulletin board and CMS under the sun require a login? The infrastructure is not yet in place for OpenID, but you better believe that when it comes, WordPress and bulletin boards will adopt it in a heartbeat.

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:02:02 +0000

Tried it, could not log in. Tried to send the webmaster a message about this, but I had to log in to do so. Tried to leave a message at the blog, but had to log in to do so too.

The only way so far in which I could log in would be to register as an AOL user. I am an old-school netizen, so you can imagine I’d rather have my nipples torn off. This Ficlets thing could work if it were not an AOL project — now all it does is attract people who are dumb enough to be AOL members. I cannot begin to imagine that such people could write anything worthwhile. I am probably wrong, but I’d rather be wrong than be an AOL member. Yes, that’s a stupid prejudice.

The least they should do is make it so that people can send messages about having problems logging in without having to log in.