Work in progress

OpenID can be used for several different purposes, and it's important that when OpenID is used, it's clear who is benefitting from its use. The owner of an OpenID benefits from being able to us a single identifier to identify themselves to websites, reducing the number of different account credentials that they need, and enabling them (typically) to bypass email account confirmation. 

But OpenID can also be used to verify that someone is who they claim to be (from the perspective of web architecture). Thus when someone leaves a comment on a blog and provides a website address, unless the commenter is able to somehow prove that the website address is under their control, they could be pretending to be someone else. OpenID is one mechanism for verifying that a commenter indeed owns the URL that they've provided in a uniform, simple (and over time) familiar flow.

But what is the value of a verified comment? Is it worth it to force people to verify the address they provide, or should it be optional?

Argument for mandatory OpenID verification

Verified identity

Spam

Arguments against

User expectations

Efficiency

Considerations

Mobile

Kiosk

Design mockup: letting the commenter choose

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