IMPORTANT: Notice of pending change to how you login to MSW

[James H]

Good evening, all!

 

The software we use is currently version v4.x. We are edging, month by month, closer to V5. When we hit a new number, these are usually massive revisions, and we've only had one of those on MSW in the past 10yrs. 

 

It is anticipated that within the next months that we will need to upgrade to the new version. To improve security, we will all have to login using our registered email address. At the moment, we simply use our username.

 

EVERYONE....please take note of the registered email address on your MSW account, by looking at your Account Settings. Take note of it. Maybe you no longer use your registered address. If not, change it. I will be prompted to reauthorise your account. That's all there is to it to be prepared for the change, when it happens. When it is imminent, I will give you a further period of notice.

 

Maybe you no longer have access to that email account. The same will apply. 

 

The short of this is PLEASE TAKE NOTICE OF YOUR REGISTERED EMAIL ADDRESS and correct it if it's not current.

 

 

[GGibson]

Hi James!  Happy to see MSW making important improvements to an already-awesome service!  Congrats on your collective success!

 

After reading your message above, I looked at my master list of account logins that I keep and, only being a member here for the past 2-3 years now, it appears according to my list that I keep, my current MSW login is my email address.  Is it possible that for the "veteran" subscribers, their login was set as their username but for us "youngsters", ours has always been our email address?  I have had my login auto-populated, so I haven't paid much attention to what my login is whenever I have to re-open the website.

 

Appreciate what you all do!  Thanks!  Carry on...!

[druxey]

Thank you, James, and all the other moderators for keeping this site up to date and clean!

[James H]

9 hours ago, GGibson said:

my current MSW login is my email address. 

 

I'm unaware of that. The system isn't accepting email addresses as logins. This is something the software creators have picked up on, and are changing it, wholesale for all forum members. If I try to login, I'm asked for username and password. You're saying yours asks for email? Can you screenshot that? I just added a new test account here and it's asking for username and password, as per this account.

[GGibson]

14 hours ago, GGibson said:

After reading your message above, I looked at my master list of account logins that I keep and...it appears according to my list that I keep, my current MSW login is my email address.

 

OK, James... So, I did the logical thing in order to check this...  I logged out and back into this MSW website.  I guess I need to keep a more accurate list of account logins, because the MSW login is, in fact, my screen name. <gulp>  My apologies for thinking otherwise... 

 

I have updated my fancy "master list", accordingly.

[James H]

Just now, GGibson said:

 

OK, James... So, I did the logical thing in order to check this...  I logged out and back into this MSW website.  I guess I need to keep a more accurate list of account logins, because the MSW login is, in fact, my screen name. <gulp>  My apologies for thinking otherwise... 

 

I have updated my fancy "master list", accordingly.

Not a problem. It did make me check though! 

[Rik Thistle]

James,

 

Currently, when I 'Sign In', I use firstly click on the small banner at the top of the page..

 

...then the box shown below appears and I enter my Display Name and Password.

 

Are you saying that 'Display Name' will be renamed 'email address'?

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

[James H]

1 hour ago, Rik Thistle said:

James,

 

Currently, when I 'Sign In', I use firstly click on the small banner at the top of the page..

 

...then the box shown below appears and I enter my Display Name and Password.

 

Are you saying that 'Display Name' will be renamed 'email address'?

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

Yes, sometime in the not to distant future. I can't say when as I don't know the date of the final release of V5.

 

This topic is merely a heads up that it will happen, given with plenty of notice.

[Rik Thistle]

OK, thanks James.

 

Richard

[robert952]

Thanks for the heads up. 

 

I am not sure if this comes into play. It likely will. So I thought I'd add my 2 kbytes worth.  

 

Several websites now require much stronger (hence longer) PWs.

 

Many sites require ten characters (the recommmended shortest PW you should use). One website I go to requires 12 characters! The longer the  better.

 

Usually all require the obligatory lower case, capital letter, number, and symbol (ampersand, dollar sign, etc.). 

 

As I change passwords, I am switching to the longer ones. I do feel good when the computer tells me: "Very Strong Password." (We have to grab the little victories when they come.) 

 

For the other 'veteran' subscribers...and we know who we are...

 

I got this idea from reading a novel: Use a phrase, saying, or favorite passage.  Put in the required characters and other minor changes to fit requiirements.

 

Examples: TwoBeorNot2B! (Thirteen characters.) Other variations:  2B_or_notTwoBe ;  2BeDoBeDoo! (OK, the last one is an out of box variation.  Which is why something like this is not a bad password.)

 

Another might be referencing a Bible verse: Gen#1_27 or 1_27Genesis! (Make sure it's not guessable by your friends or relatives - or on a  bumper sticker on your car.) 

 

Still another:  Complete sentences: Itwas-thebestoftimes-Itwas-theworstoftimes_345! (a whopping 46 character password! Think how impressed your friends will be when they see you type in THAT long of a password. They'll not question your memory again. (OK, you do have to remember which words you capitalized and the actual numbers you used, but you have a fighting chance. )  CallMeIshmael#1 just popped into my head...easier to remember? Or Maryhad1LittleLamb!  Poems also make for good lines to consider. Whatever you can remember that has a lot of characters. 

 

And for the record, I just made these up as I typed this. I don't use any of the above. But one time I did use: ThisismyPassword_therearemanylikeIt_butthis1_ismine!  (52 characters. Note cap I in the middle - a good thing to do is put a capital letter somewhere within the password.)

 

And there are some websites where I do not let my browser keep my PW 'on file.'  I am just paranoid enough to do that. But the ones I use are more easily remembered passwords. 

 

I hope all this helps simplify the remembery of PWs for you and inspires you to come up with a unique password. 

[Jack12477]

You can also substitute numbers for letters in words. Number 0 for letter  O, number 1 for letter I or L (both upper and lower case), number 5 for letter S,  number 3 for letter E,  dollar sign $ for letter S . Example: Ph1lad31phia = Philadelphia. Or Pennsylvania as P3nn$1tuck3y aka Pennsyltuckey.  With all the logon accounts we have to maintain, for banks, doctor's patient portals, insurance,  investments,  Social Security,  et al, you want to follow the Kiss principles and not get too carried away.  😉 

[James H]

Chaps, the password info is very good advice, but please can we keep this one on topic as it's extremely important.