Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:13 pm

...there a number appended to the login username? It says "To ensure a unique login name for your Trusted Contact, append "-15" to the end of the Username given above when logging into the site." but that doesn't really explain why it's needed.

Also, the password is starred out on the contact list page, but isn't on the edit contact page - one or the other should be changed.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:25 pm

Yes kind of odd. Mine is "-16" which I guess is our unique id in the db.

Like Fang says though I'm not sure what it is needed for.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:25 pm

It's actually explained in the FAQ I think. It ensures that your trusted contact has a unique login name and allows customers to pick any login name they want instead of spending a lot of time trying to find a name that isn't being used by anyone else. For example, you can pick a common name like "Mom" for your contact, and the certificate will show the full login name with the hyphen and number.

What I *don't* explain on the site is that as long as your contact name is already unique, the hyphen and number is optional.

But the whole point of this was to try to make the site easier to use and not waste a lot of time trying different contact names until you found something that was unique. Especially if this service will be used by *lots* of people. I know it's a pain when creating an account on an MMO to find a name that isn't taken. Since the full login name is given on the certificate, it isn't asking too much for the trusted contact to follow the instructions and include the hyphen and number as part of the instructions.

The passwords are starred on the main list because I didn't want you to see all of your passwords at once. But when you actually go in to *edit* the name/password, I wanted the password to show in that case, since you are likely clicking on the contact to learn what the specific login is. So I think it's "as designed".

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:48 pm

So do we have to change it or not? If we don't then they can get in anyway as long as they use the -# even if without is no longer unique?

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:09 pm

Using the full login name with the -# will guarantee that you can get into the site. Using the short login name without the -# will only let you into the site if it is unique. So it might work now, but might not work later when more people have added login names. That's why the certificates show the full name so that there won't be any problem with them logging in.

So I don't think any change is needed, but let me know if it is still confusing.

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 11:45 am

No that's fine if the user can leave it as the short one but their contact can still get in with the long one.

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:01 pm

I think it might be more intuitive to have the user pick whatever login name they like and always add a number to the end of it. Then you can have a help link on the "edit contact" page where the current explanation is that says "Why was a number added to my login name?", which would go on to explain how it's their unique ID and makes sure that all the usernames are unique, and that using the short name on its own will probably still work.

Someone might go for a very long period of time between giving someone the login and their having to use it, and there's no guarantee that the short name will still work because someone might've used the same login in the meantime, or they might actually never have checked if it wasn't already in use in the first place. Since most of the time the username will be distributed by certificate (which has the number anyway), it won't make a great deal of difference to the vast majority of users and will stop other people asking this question.

Small change, I know, but I think it makes a difference.

EDIT: Oh, and another small thing - since the same box is used for trusted contact names as well as email addresses, the (email) above the login box should probably be removed or changed to something like (email or trusted contact login id)

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 4:26 pm

So just display the -### number in the Trusted Contact list table? I can do that. I had that for a while and thought it looked messy (since the same exact number gets appended to each contact). But maybe it will make things more obvious if it worked like that. I'll give it a try.

On the login page, I think it is actually ok. It says "Username" as the main label, which is what is printed on the Trusted Contact certificate. For normal customers, your email is only the initial "default" user name (again, the reduce the problem with login names that are already taken). But you can go into your Account Information page and change your login name to anything you want...you don't have to keep it the same as your email.

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:50 pm

OK, I have made a change to the Trusted contact list and added some text at the end of the list to explain what this -### is. Let me know if you think that is better.