Log in with email only

[Randy Schmidt]

Hey folks,

I'm going to be building a product soon that calls for having a
super-lightweight log in system initiated by someone receiving an
email. They can then click a link and be logged in or continue to
participate by replying to the email.

As part of that, I've developed a log in + sign up system where you
enter your email then check your email account for a link to log in.

Some caveats

1. It currently takes a little too long to receive the email
2. I realize that if the purpose is just someone logging into the
site, using Twitter or Facebook is probably really the easiest (but
this flow serves a purpose in another project)
3. I'll probably make the tokens expire after 15 minutes
4. I'll probably keep the tokens empty except for when a confirmation
is actually sent, then clear it when it is clicked. But... maybe I
don't need to? Not sure yet.

So... just looking for what people think of it. Also, since this is
somewhat different from a traditional log in system I'm having trouble
figuring out what to call things :P. The process of filling in your
email and sending it is "confirmations" and the clicking of the link
is "a new session". The confirmation concept doesn't seem right.

You can try it here:

https://diddleberry.herokuapp.com

And check out the code here:

https://github.com/r38y/diddleberry

Cheers!
--
Randy Schmidt

[Mat Schaffer]

Somewhat off the cuff, but if the constraints for identity verification are somewhat low maybe it's worth letting the person be already "signed in" but can't perform certain actions until they confirm their email?

That might help ease the lag time of receiving the email. 

Sounds fun otherwise. Good luck with it!

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-Mat

about.me/matschaffer

[mike nicholaides]

I've heard rumors that a lot of people just use the "Forgot my password" every time they want to log in to a site. Sounds like you'd be paving this cowpath.

Mike Nicholaides
http://ablegray.com
(267) 622-4729

[Andy Libby]

For lesser used sites this happens to me.  So +1 randy!

Andy Libby

xforty.com

[Chad Ostrowski]

At first I thought you meant that you would send a link to continue the sign-up process; to set a password.

But I think you're saying that every single login would require checking my email and clicking a link!

Maybe I'm unique in this, but checking my email feels like work. It does not fit in the flow of the rest of the web. I find it overly ceremonious. I would therefore have some resistance to ever logging into your service. (However, if it's meant to be a service that isn't used that frequently, the ceremony of email is probably preferable to the ceremony of password-remembrance.)

Maybe you could do the same thing with IM? Gchats pop up in Messages.app for me, which is much easier to switch to & check than an email client (web or native). The technical difficulty then, of course, becomes navigating various IM protocols instead of just SMTP. But I suspect I would find it better than remembering a password, even for sites I visit frequently.

[Randy Schmidt]

Thanks everybody for the feedback. I think trying to incorporate other
means of communication makes things MORE complicated and I'm going for
simple. Also, for the app this is going to be used in, the first thing
people see for the app is an email kicking off the conversation so
they are already in their email.

Anywho, thank you!

Randy Schmidt