If I went to a party or a meetup where they asked to check my ID at the door I'd probably just walk out and never come back. I don't like parties run by the socially inept. Who asks their friends for an ID card?
I'm willing to show my ID at bars and airports, to cops, and when opening bank accounts, because it's the law. And at least most of these venues have excuses -- banks want to link large amounts of your money to your ID, so they need to make sure they've got it right; cars are deadly weapons; alcohol is a potentially deadly drug. (The airlines? They really love nontransferable tickets with big change fees. And security theater. And, uh, did we mention that it's the law?)
But in general nobody asks for your ID unless they have a good reason. And I just don't see a good reason why my as-yet-nonexistent Stack Overflow karma needs to be linked to any other aspect of my identity.
At least I have a straightforward answer to my question: No, the Stack Overflowers will not give me the simple username and password that I want. It's against their religion. Good to know. I'll ask again five years from now.
No need to log in; it is possible, and always has been possible, to participate as a cookie-based user indefinitely.
We have some users that juggle cookie based accounts for as long as a year. And as of about 6 months ago we can reinstate your cookie on the "forgot my login" form, provided you gave us a valid email address to start with (we don't validate emails).
I'm willing to show my ID at bars and airports, to cops, and when opening bank accounts, because it's the law. And at least most of these venues have excuses -- banks want to link large amounts of your money to your ID, so they need to make sure they've got it right; cars are deadly weapons; alcohol is a potentially deadly drug. (The airlines? They really love nontransferable tickets with big change fees. And security theater. And, uh, did we mention that it's the law?)
But in general nobody asks for your ID unless they have a good reason. And I just don't see a good reason why my as-yet-nonexistent Stack Overflow karma needs to be linked to any other aspect of my identity.
At least I have a straightforward answer to my question: No, the Stack Overflowers will not give me the simple username and password that I want. It's against their religion. Good to know. I'll ask again five years from now.