OpenID support as an option.

[noneloud]

Hello, my name is Jacob Wilson and I have been a long time fan of Invisionboard and the great work that has been going on at InvisionPower lately. IPB is simply unsurpassed by any other board out there today.

I have one suggestion that I think InvisionBoard should look into. I have always been a fan of authentication systems like that of Microsoft's Passport and the Liberty Alliance's efforts, but the problem with them all is that they all rely on one central server for ID verification, and they require user information and passwords to be passed between sites. OpenID is an authentication specification that allows users to verify themselfs on other websites without having to pass their passwords or personal information between sites.

I think it would be awesome if InvisionBoard worked OpenID into the board so that administrators can allow users from other sites to post comments in threads on their forums. The specification is already backed by (and indeed, worked on by) Livejournal, MoveableType, Typepad. Livejournal already has it implemented for comments on it's site.

I hope that this is considered, because it would open doors for administrators and their users.



Thank you,
Jacob Wilson

[Matt]

OpenID isn't really suited to a forum system, though. You'd need to own a blog to be able to authenticate via that and that's not a lot of the greater community.

[noneloud]

OpenID isn't really suited to a forum system, though. You'd need to own a blog to be able to authenticate via that and that's not a lot of the greater community.

It's not limited to blogs. The specification is open. If InvisionBoard were to implement it, people could log on to other forums using an id from here or from Neowin. There are people who have made simple webpages made out of PHP that verify. (You can see more about this in the OpenID Wiki)

For user IDs you could use a system like "http://forums.invisionpower.com/?oid=username" which would look for that username on said forum, and allow them to post using that ID if they are logged in there. The username on the posts for other forums could show as "Username from InvisionPower.com"

I know the only people using it now are Blogging websites, but it would work great for all communities out there now. The main developers (and others) are hoping to get support of companies like InvisionPower, because more people participate in other sites if they don't have to register and customize all of them. :)





-Jacob Wilson

[Emonair]

I'd like to implement openid on my IP Blog so I can participate in friends livejournals without having to actually be a member there. I don't want to maintain a livejournal... I like my IP blog.

[Wolfie]

Huh?

[.om]

without reading the whole thing...


@wolfie..I *think* its something like using the same ID on different sites/systems/whatever so that multi registrations can be avoided.

[Wolfie]

That'd be cool so long as it's a database where I get to and register "Wolfie" before someone else can. :)

[Guest]

Being decentralized, you would use a login name from your own site to log in, then you'd still need a display name at (for example) IPS forums, so you'd not gain there. :)

There are other solutions that may be better suited to forums, though. </shameless plug> :-"