Social Sign-in Options

Do you personally like the option of signing in with your Twitter, Facebook or email address to leave a comment on a blog?

As I add this feature to my blog with a little bit of angst, I really want to know how others react to these options.

On one hand, I think that social sign-in options such as Twitter and Facebook provide a level of convenience that many are accustomed to already using elsewhere – perhaps even more apt to use over an email address.

On the other hand, in this data meta driven wonderful world, I’m also concerned about the perception of visitors who encounter these social login options which in turn ask for permission to access their data.

I really believe that app and web service developers need to do a better job explaining how this access will be used and ask for the barest minimum of permissions. It should be explained up front during the sign-in process. Come back and ask for more permissions when it’s necessary and after we’ve had a chance to feel comfortable with using your app or a particular site.

Balancing convenience with the greater good of privacy is a responsibility that I’ve tried to balance.

Right now, I’m still in the questioning phase. How do others, how do you, react to these social sign-in processes?

If you use them, which ones do you prefer?

At the bottom of this post and now all of mine, there is the option to sign in with your Twitter or Facebook account. You can also use an email address if you prefer. Some type of sign-in is necessary to help combat spam.

The solution I’ve used is considered simple, light, and doesn’t do more than I want it to. It’s an open source solution which I consider good and backed by a known brand – MailChimp.

I researched quite a few solutions for WordPress and all had just enough cons to make me feel uncomfortable. Some required sign-ups to a 3rd party to implement. Some like Jetpack for WordPress were overkill. When I tried testing with Jetpack, it couldn’t even get past the required first step of connecting to it’s cloud service.

So here I am, asking you to please let me know if the sign-in options on this blog work for you. I’d really like to know how others view this and tackle it for their own blogs.

Do you see these options on a blog and run the other way – without leaving a comment? I guess if you don’t leave a comment here, then maybe that’s my answer 😉 .

I won’t use your information by the way, in any nefarious ways. I won’t spam you later. I won’t sell your information. The write access is used to give you an option to post your comment to Twitter or Facebook. You have the option as you write your comment to do this. I really wish that fewer permissions were required to use this feature. So I apologize. The plugin requires it for some of it’s features. I’ll be as upfront with all of this as I would want to be treated myself though.

Please help satisfy my curiosity and let me know your views.

Now, on to my next cuppa tea.