More details and answers to your questions on our new comments system after the jump.
As expected, some of you are experiencing some glitches and difficulties with the new comments and login system we rolled out today. First, our apologies for the trouble. And thanks to all of you who’ve written in. Let me try to answer some of the questions we’ve been asked most.
What if I don’t want to login using my Facebook, Google, Yahoo or Twitter accounts?
Most users have an account with one of these services. However, a small number of you do not. If you don’t have or don’t want to use an account with one of these services, next week we’re rolling out a TPM specific login using O-Auth. That way you’ll have a way to login even if you don’t want to use any of these other services.
How do I get back or use my existing TPM username or identity?
If you have been a long-time TPM user, when you registered with us you gave us an email address. If you used that same email address to sign up for Facebook, Google, Yahoo or Twitter, then our system will automatically import your old identity into the new system. To put that in plain English, your comments will show up with your old TPM user name and avatar. If for some reason that does not work, next week we’ll be rolling out a setting that will let you pick a new TPM-specific user name or avatar.
I want to comment but I don’t want to do it under my own name, which I’d have to do with one of these other accounts.
As noted, most of you should be able to automatically import your old identity into the new system. If not, you should be able to use the new features we’re rolling out next week (the ones noted in #1 and #2) to get around that problem.
Why’d we do this?
The basic reason is, our old login system was breaking down. It simply could not handle our growth. We realized we could not use our resources and money to continually patch bugs, so we decided to build a new system from scratch — one that was stable and would allow to build new features on. This decision was not taken quickly or capriciously. So we built a new system based on the OAuth framework, which is quickly becoming an industry standard.
