Allowing OpenID accounts to post to existing communities

[foxfirefey]

So, currently mark is working on a project to import communities so we can migrate scans_daily, and part of that means making it so that OpenID users can edit and delete posts in communities, but not post to them. But what if OpenID accounts with verified emails were allowed to post to communities?

* OpenID users can already join communities, so they can comment as members, but they're barred from participating directly in the community through posting. However, many communities are too quiet as is--opening them up could have good effects, even if few OpenID users take advantage of the ability.
* If OpenID users want to give communities content for members to read, that's probably not a bad thing. If somebody only wants to participate in our communities and doesn't feel like they need an account because their main blog is elsewhere, making them get an account to participate isn't going to make them want to use it like a full account. (This is especially good for some things like letting outside developers make posts in dw_dev.) Letting them participate without getting a full account slightly lowers the barrier of entry, and prevents username space from being taken up more than it has to. And, we could make it easy to upgrade an OpenID account to a full fledged account with an invite code and the choosing of a username, converting all their posts and comments.
* Community admins might want to restrict this, so they should be given controls to be able to choose whether or not OpenID accounts can make posts in their community. They could also choose to have all OpenID account posts go into a moderation queue, but real accounts automatically go through. Defaults could make a big difference here: allowing OpenID accounts by default creates a more open, outward facing friendly Dreamwidth overall, while allowing community admins to open up their communities to OpenID posts but not having it on by default makes it the responsibility of the community creators to advertise that they're using Dreamwidth as an open platform for that particular community.
* One downside is that spamming via communities would become much easier. However, like discussed above, communities could be given controls to let admins determine whether or not OpenID accounts could post at all or be automatically moderated. However, because OpenID accounts wouldn't be able to *create* communities, it would be much harder to use that as a loophole. On the other hand, it would mean spammers would only need to get ahold of one account to start mass producing communities for OpenIDs to spam in. But then again, there's nothing really stopping them from doing that now besides the community creation rate limiting.

So, what do you think the effects of letting OpenID communities post to DW would be? Positive? Negative? Underutilized?

Comments

[pne]

I'd be for it.

[sashajwolf]

I don't see it getting enough use to be worthwhile, especially when balanced against the increased risk of spam.

[azurelunatic]

If there's a rogue OpenID server, it could be banned, the whole kit and kaboodle, I believe. Though LJ's full of spammers the poor thing, and it would not be too difficult for LJ spammers to make the leap in that way. Though LJ would probably be glad to suspend the little bastards should they do so. It could be more work, but I think it would be worth a trial.

If it happens, it should come with settings to differentiate posting permissions: I think a lot of community admins would be fine with it if they could set all OpenID user posts to moderated and give regular users open posting.

[sophie]

Thinking about this for a while, I think that the spam concerns can be offset by forcing OpenID users to have validated email addresses before posting to a community. While some spammers wouldn't be deterred by this, it makes finding the rest of them a lot easier.

But maybe even that's not enough.

[holyschist]

If the spam problems could be curtailed, I think it would be positive--hopefully it would lead to more active communities.

[triadruid]

Instinctively, I'd say it would increase the spam greatly while increasing the user content somewhat (OpenID is not exactly intuitive at first for users, while spammers have it down/can share scripts).

But I have no numbers to prove that.

[mark]

I'm very against it. OpenID accounts can participate in discussions but not create content (entries) and the risks of spam and abuse by allowing them to create content feels too high, IMO.

Also, the benefits are very minor. If someone really wants to create content, they can get a DW account. It's easy, I believe, and if it's not then we have to fix that and make it easy for people to join the site and participate.