I think we should slightly rethink how login works on most Fediverse apps (Mastodon, Lemmy, but not only)
I think we should slightly rethink how login works on most Fediverse apps (Mastodon, Lemmy, but not only)
A while ago I posted a thread back on the
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::: website, with a personal opinion on why the Fediverse seems a bit complicated. It basically goes like this: Mastodon (and pretty much every Fediverse project out there) is based on the idea of using multiple websites.
This is not really a problem on the desktop, as you're using the browser to log in to the Fediverse. You go to mastodon.social or lemmy.world, maybe bookmark these, and you log in as normal (if you do not check the remember me option at login). Same goes with Facebook, with Xitter, with the
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Alright, but the newer generations (not everyone, but many folks part of them) rather use apps instead. And what do these apps do? Present a login screen with fields only for the username and the password (at most).
What are the Fediverse apps doing? They are also asking for the website where they would log you in. So you go open e.g. the Mastodon app, then type the website that you need to access (which in many cases it might not contain the word Mastodon in it), and only then you can enter the credentials.
What am I asking now (especially app developers): Wouldn't it be better (if doable) to take some cues on how actually email (and XMPP for that matter) works, and ask the user for the username and the password instead in one go?
Like, everyone knows how to use email, everyone is familiar with that. And as I mentioned, XMPP is also doing it as well:
Wouldn't it be doable?
No, because security. Look up how oauth works and why.
Email providers also have oauth