Login: Sometimes you wanna go where nobody knows your name

What is a login, anyway?

Login is the term used to describe the process of using your username and password to prove your identity to a service, particularly to begin a series of communications with that service that will not require you to enter your username and password with every transaction.

This all sounds great. So what's the problem?

There are several kinds of login problems, some of which fall into the Web Interface category and some of which are really General/Unknown material:

The most common login problem is that the user is simply entering the wrong password. This may be occurring because the user has mistyped it, or does not really know it, or accidentally left the caps-lock key on. This is a gunk problem, and will generally be resolved in that category.

Login problems may also be caused by incomplete support for JavaScript in the user's browser. LiveJournal uses JavaScript to protect the password so that it cannot be intercepted between the user's computer and LiveJournal's server, but this means that a browser that does not support JavaScript completely will have trouble logging in.

If the user is unable to properly accept cookies, a login may appear to succeed, but then the user may be immediately logged out when they visit any other page. More information on this problem is available in the cookies problem-solving guide.

Lastly, login problems may occur if the user's account has been deleted and purged. In this case, however, the user will be notified of this when they attempt to log in; receiving a request from such a user is a rare event. This type of request should also be answered in Gunk, as it does not involve an error in LiveJournal or in the user's browser.

So, to recap: Questions about "bad password" errors and purged accounts should be sent to gunk if they are seen in Web first, so that at least one attempt may be made there to correct for user error. Other error messages, or unresponsiveness on the part of the brower, are Web problems and should remain in Web.

So what can be done?

A user may request to be e-mailed a link which will allow them to reset their password as described in the lost username/password FAQ.

If the issues are JavaScript-based, the user may enable JavaScript, add livejournal.com and theirusername.livejournal.com to any in-browser security or trusted site lists, and alter settings in their browsers which selectively disable JavaScript.

There is a FAQ that addresses all of these possibilities, and it should be referenced on any request that seems to be a login problem.

How can I tell if something is a login problem?

Generally diagnosis of login problems is relatively straightforward, since the user will be sent an error message explaining that they have failed to log in. In most cases the user will report this fact in the request.