Rants: I have a vision. One day people will again be allowed to create accounts on
MetaFilter. By closing off the account creation, they've effectively limited their user-base. They've limited the knowledge that can be exchanged through and with their system. So here it is: develop a database system like
Friendster. But build in an api to allow other membership based sites to use the username and login. Similar to
Microsoft's Passport, but for the people. Then with my single account I could be passed through to
MetaFilter,
Fark,
Blogger, etc. The sites with a lot of users, say 1000+ pay a low fee to not have to worry about the headache of user managment. For the companies that aren't going to be interested in letting someone outsource the data, like
Amazon or
eBay provide a tool that would link in the user information and do the transaction in the background. As well my friends could view my auctions, or my tickets for sale on
craigslist. And my posts on
Slashdot. Of course there would be security issues with a system like this but it would make sense for the site makers and the users, who are just passing through. Oh, it would manage cookies too so it would know my
Google search settings.
