Please rethink “required”

It really bothers me to have to remember dozens of logins and passwords to all the sites I may want to use on the Internet.  I appreciate when sites take time to use OAuth or Twitter/Facebook login integration, so I don’t need to make yet another account, for which I’ll forget the login, have to be sent a reminder the next time I want to use it, reset the password, and start all over again.  Lest you think I’m a senile 23-year-old, I’m talking about sites I visit infrequently like certain forums, where in the midst of researching some programming issue I’m facing I stumble back onto the site.  Invariably these sites require registering and logging in to make comments; I can understand this need from a spam avoidance perspective (though even with CAPTCHAs and logins, a dedicated spammer is still going to get through), but from a user-interface perspective, it’s a big pain.

As a realist, I understand that the situation’s not going to change any time soon.  So I’m resigned to having to sign up for a site just to make comments on it.  But what I really cannot abide by is the absolute ludicrous amount of information you have to submit in some cases.

Case in point, there’s a very good article on Pitfalls in Scala on the Java Lobby.  I was going to comment, and got into the whole registration thing.  Well, have a peek at the information Java Lobby expects you to provide just to be able to make a comment on their site:

Really? 15 required fields?

I’m surprised they didn’t have a field for your social security number; I mean that’s probably pretty crucial for them to know if they’re going to let you comment on their precious articles, right?

There’s a lot being said about privacy today in the wake of Facebook’s changing policies, but I don’t hear so much complaining about sites requiring way more information to signup than necessary.  Let me know in the comments if this bugs you too.

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