Commenters: You Need To Convert Your Accounts Right Now

Have you heard about the new "arm the peasants and redistribute the land" commenting regime taking hold here in the very near future? Well, Phase 1—converting your commenting account to third-party authentication—begins this morning. Perhaps you have some questions.

We're making this change for security purposes—namely to enhance your security as a user on our sites. By tying your commenting account to a Twitter, Facebook, or Google account, we're putting our account security layer in the hands of some of the best in the business—major sites with more security expertise and resources than anyone else on the web.

Not necessarily. You only need to convert your account if you currently log into our sites with a username and password. If you were already logging in via Twitter or Facebook, you're gold.

The conversion process is pretty simple. If your account needs to be converted, you should be prompted to do so when you log in, or you will see a message prompting you to do so in the notification drop-down at the top right of the page. Simply follow the prompts to transition your account to whatever service you prefer.

Nope. The same username will display on all your comments, and all of your comments and history will carry over. Basically, things are exactly the same as before; you just log in using a different method.

No. The only thing visible to other users will be the screen name you set on our site and any other information you explicitly add to your profile. You may log in via Twitter/Facebook/Google, but no one on the site will know what your Twitter/Facebook/Google account is unless you add this information to your profile.

Some of you may prefer not to tie your commenting account to one of your IRL accounts. If anonymity is a concern, we suggest you use an anonymous account from one of these services.

No. Promise. It's just for login purposes.

We want to make this process as painless as possible, so if you have any trouble, concerns, or complaints, please take a look our FAQ and feel free to email [email protected] with any other questions.