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When I tried to use SuperUser.com (the main site) just now, I realized that I'm not logged in. So, I tried to login, but the password recovery option reports errors that my eMail addresses aren't recognized (sometimes in the form of "The page could not be found" which I believe is not the same as a 404 Not found error since the page definitely is valid as the URI hasn't changed) and sends me to the "Stack Exchange OpenID" page (where trying again also fails with "invalid eMail address" errors -- my eMail address is definitely valid; it used to work on this system, and it works just fine on a daily basis with the legitimate eMails I receive along with the hundreds of spam I constantly get in my junk folder).

I signed up under the "Stack Exchange OpenID" system a long time ago (many months at least, and near the time it just got promoted from beta if I recall correctly), and it seems to have been working just fine until today. (Note that this is not the same as the regular OpenID.org system, which I gave up on since it never worked because they only support a subset of valid RFC-compliant standard eMail addresses, and they did not respond to any of my requests for help with their system.)

  Stack Exchange's OpenID system
  https://openid.stackexchange.com/

I'm worried that my account may have been deleted (accidentally?), but I'm also not sure that this is the case because I can still use other sites, including this meta site, without any problems. I hope this is merely an easily fixable side-effect of the recent account merger problems (https://meta.superuser.com/questions/3661/problems-with-account-mergers-again-and-i-didnt-request-a-merger-this-tim).

Thanks in advance.

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    Wow, your account just can't catch a break of late
    – random Mod
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 3:20
  • @random: It certainly is perplexing. I wonder if something subtle was slightly off-track somewhere -- maybe my account was created during a short moment in time when there was some bad code in place? (That's just a wild guess.)
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 3:28
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    Are you sure you didn't use another OpenID system? The Stack Exchange OpenID system was introduced May 2011, while Super User left the beta back in 2009. On a logged in account, you can see which providers you have used by clicking through to your profile and clicking my logins. Other than that you can try standard troubleshooting like clearing cookies and trying another browser. Good luck...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 3:48
  • @Tom Wijsman: I'm not finding it here in my profile in "meta" and when I click on "network profile" I'm lead to this page where I'm not logged in (and can't login, as detailed in my question): stackexchange.com/users/1024585/randolf-richardson (...then if I click on "meta" there I find myself logged in as that other user named "Complicated see bio" which was involved in the merger problems.)
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 4:02
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    What about Game Development? You were there 17 mins ago, could you see it from there?
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 4:08
  • @Tom Wijsman: Ah yes, I see the "my logins" link there -- I see only my eMail address first (the one I'm expecting to need to login with), and "OpenID (Stack Exchange)."
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 5:43
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    Are you using a valid email address? I believe you wrote that the issue with "complicated" was that you both used the same email address...?
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 8:07
  • @Daniel Beck: When I signed up with OpenID, I used one of my real eMail addresses that I use to send and receive eMail every day. When I first encountered this web site I used "[email protected]" as I often do (and many others do) to avoid the time-wasting hassle of getting spammed and nagged and harassed about a wide variety of things (as, unfortunately, is the result of providing one's eMail address to many web sites these days).
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 8:14
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    @RandolfRichardson: If you want to continue that practice, consider creating a mail that's solely meant for SPAM but that you can still access. This way you can always recover your accounts and you are assured that your e-mail is unique and not used by others. Luckily example.com is property of IANA, or it would have some other side-effects... :)
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 13:43
  • @Tom Wijsman: The "example.com" domain (and a few others) are reserved according to section 3 of RFC 2606 (Reserved Top Level DNS Names), which is why it's owned by IANA. The problem with using a dedicated account as you suggest is that it becomes yet another account that needs to be maintained -- eMail addresses in the "example.com" domain are true throw-away addresses. Out of frustration with having to unsubscribe from various services (and their countless partners) that use opt-out policies, I, like many others, have resorted to using example.com, etc.
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 2:31
  • @RandolfRichardson: It doesn't need to be maintained, setting up an e-mail account at any ISP and not looking at it requires nearly no maintenance at all. If necessary, a yearly empty inbox fits. I'm just saying, it facilitates recovery of accounts that use that e-mail address, or when you do need the content of the mail. There have been some sites that are famous for having to register your mail in order to download something. But well, let's hope for someone to pass by and help you out on this one...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 2:41
  • @Tom Wijsman: Well, this shouldn't be an issue anyway because I got signed up with Stack Exchange's OpenID system using a real eMail address (not "[email protected]"). At this point, I still can't access SuperUser.com and so I'm unable to contribute -- all the other sites are working fine, but Stack Exchange's OpenID system is still a problem so I suppose it'll only be a matter of time before I'm somehow logged out of those too.
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 2:44
  • Okay, I was able to get another account signed up, but I had to do it from another StackExchange site because coming from SuperUser.com doesn't work for some reason. Here's a message on the other site describing my continued problems (I hope the merge didn't trigger other problems): meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1288/…
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Dec 19, 2011 at 10:36

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Is this still an issue? Perhaps for something this involved, email us directly via the "contact us" address at the bottom of every page?

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