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Ask HN: I have 3 HN accounts, which all randomly get used

2 points by jasonneal ↗ HN
I have three HN accounts:

http://news.ycombinator.org/user?id=jneal http://news.ycombinator.org/user?id=jtneal http://news.ycombinator.org/user?id=jasonneal

I use "Click Pass" to log-in...but depending on which computer I use, I log-in to a different account. For example, at home I believe it uses Gmail, and logs me in to "jneal". At work, it uses Facebook, and logs me in to "jasonneal".

It doesn't bother me too much, but I would like some consistency...Is there some way to merge my "jtneal" and "jasonneal" with my "jneal" account? If not, I'm okay to have "jtneal" and "jasonneal" either deleted or at least some how deactivated so they can't be logged in to. Click Pass doesn't give me any choice on how I want to log in, it just automatically logs me in.

Jason

4 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 27.1 ms ] thread
vipivip
Why did you create 3 accounts?
jasonneal
I haven't got a clue to be honest. I believe, at one point, I was unable to log in to my account "jneal" and so I created "jasonneal". I'm not sure when "jtneal" was created. They are all over a few years old.
vipivip
Just use one with lots of karma then forget the rest, formulate a way to remember your passwords though.
nantes
I am guessing because he used different ClickPass providers the first time he logged in using different computers. I have been tripped up by this before on other sites and have found it fustrating.

I had something similar happen when I reviewed a local restaurant (Mirth Cafe!) on Yelp. At first, I thought I could just write the review and be done since Yelp recognized that I was logged into Facebook and displayed the fact. In fact, that doesn't equate to a Yelp user account, which I apparently already had. Linking the Facebook account looked like a pain, so I just dug through my email to find my old account.

Moral of the story? User management is tricky at best and a nightmare at worst -- really take the time to think it through. My impression is that users work in much the way a stream of water does, by following the path of least resistance. And remember, water doesn't usually flow back after flowing by.

Sorry for the long rant; I don't mean this as a criticism of HN, just a frustration of mine.