Well, not that I know much about these things, but I'm a little wary of having MS overseeing the only authentication system. I don't mind having competing approaches.

Decius wrote:
] ] TypeKey helps ensure that people who comment on a site
] ] have a verified identity, keeping conversations on track
] ] and helping to prevent abusive or offensive content
] ] (comment spam) from being posted.
]
] Moveable Type's solution to comment spam was to build their
] own version of Microsoft Passport.
]
] 1. One wonders why they didn't just use Microsoft Passport.
]
] 2. I predict that because most net users have the IQ of a rock
] they won't understand that this is exactly the same as
] Microsoft Passport. Furthermore, they will think its a "great
] idea" and wonder why no one did it before. They won't be at
] all concerned about the privacy of their data because its not
] the architecture of the system that is important but who made
] it that matters.
]
] 3. TypeKey currently doesn't share information about how to
] interoperate with their system. They hint that people will
] have to pay them money in order to interoperate. Depending on
] the costs associated with that they may or may not expand this
] little service outside of the world of their own software.
] They are unlikely to get this right.
]
] 4. It will be interesting to see how their system actually
] works. If they developed a good enough protocol an open source
] typekey system would enable people to run their own identity
] servers that are compatible with moveable type. Its easy to
] mis-design a system like this so that it doesn't really work
] well for such a purpose.
]
] 5. There is a remote possibility that if the protocol is
] right, the money is right, and MT's perception in the user
] community is right that this could become the way that
] everyone shares authentication information on the internet.
] Its unlikely, and it won't happen in way that MT likes
] (they'll loose control). But its possible.

adamist wrote:
] Well, not that I know much about these things, but I'm a
] little wary of having MS overseeing the only authentication
] system. I don't mind having competing approaches.

I agree, but the problem isn't so much that "MS" is overseeing the only authentication system, but that whether you choose passport or typekey, you are still deciding that one company should be overseeing the only authentication system. What would be preferable is to have a standard that allows a number of different companies to run authentication databases that all interoperate, so that websites could accept logins from people using any of them. This would enable a really competitive environment.

Decius wrote:
] ] TypeKey helps ensure that people who comment on a site
] ] have a verified identity, keeping conversations on track
] ] and helping to prevent abusive or offensive content
] ] (comment spam) from being posted.

I was thinking more along the thoughts of what about my anonymity and right to privacy? If a site used this, I would probably avoid it. But I looked to see what they had to say and found this snippet on the site:

---
"As a TypeKey user, you get your own free TypeKey Profile Page, displaying only the information you choose to share. Those who are interested in finding out more about the person behind the comments on a site can visit the identity page to see what information is publicly available. You can even publish a TypeKey Profile Page while remaining completely anonymous."
---

So I wonder, if you can still post anonymously, why bother having the typekey system in the first place? What good is registering and then always posting anonymously(besides adding your name to their database)? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Or am I missing something?

StankDawg wrote:
] So I wonder, if you can still post anonymously, why bother
] having the typekey system in the first place? What good is
] registering and then always posting anonymously(besides adding
] your name to their database)? Doesn't that defeat the
] purpose? Or am I missing something?

I don't think its pointless. It creates some barriers for comment spammers. You must have an account. That account must be tied to an email address. Typepad can deploy various kinds of defenses against register bots, such as Kaptcha, more effectively at a centralized location then by shipping defenses out to a million weblogs in software updates. Also, weblog admins will have some ability to control trolls by banning accounts.

Once you have a way of establishing a persistent identity that exists across multiple websites you could have some reputation associated with that identity....

Decius wrote:
] StankDawg wrote:
] ] So I wonder, if you can still post anonymously, why bother
] ] having the typekey system in the first place? What good is
] ] registering and then always posting anonymously(besides
] adding
] ] your name to their database)? Doesn't that defeat the
] ] purpose? Or am I missing something?
]
] I don't think its pointless. It creates some barriers for
] comment spammers. You must have an account. That account must
] be tied to an email address. Typepad can deploy various kinds
] of defenses against register bots, such as Kaptcha, more
] effectively at a centralized location then by shipping
] defenses out to a million weblogs in software updates. Also,
] weblog admins will have some ability to control trolls by
] banning accounts.
]
] Once you have a way of establishing a persistent identity that
] exists across multiple websites you could have some reputation
] associated with that identity....

That makes sense. But I still worry about the possibility of not being able to post and truly be anonymous. I would probably avoid sites that use this technology just like I avoid sites that use passport if I can help it. If I *have* to use them, I intentionally DO NOT log into my passport account when I do it. I don't like being watched. But that is just my personal paranoid opinion. :)

StankDawg wrote:
] That makes sense. But I still worry about the possibility of
] not being able to post and truly be anonymous.

I agree 100%. In this respect this service is much better then passport. They almost encourage you to set up a quasi anonymous email address and register with it.

Eric Hughes once told me that pseudonymity on the internet is easy, but true anonymity is hard.

If you want a weblogging service that approaches true anonymity you might consider http://www.invisiblog.com/.

You can setup your account and post to it through the mixmaster remailer network. Its very difficult for anyone to track who is running your blog through that system. I'd like to build a feature like that into memestreams, but there are so many other things that I would like to do and that is very low on the priority list. Someday, maybe, I'll do it...