I think it is a terrible idea.This came out of the discussions we have about a smooth migration path for our users at AOL. In our case the [EMAIL PROTECTED] nickname is also a resolvable email address, though it may not be the primary mail account of the user. I'd suggest that as a best practice, anywhere that a [EMAIL PROTECTED] nickname is used, it should also be a resolvable email address. And there should always be an option to not use something that looks like an email address.
1) If you put something out into the market that looks like an e-mail it will be used like an e-mail. I have personal experience with this.
I had a AIM handle for the Mac part of the universe [EMAIL PROTECTED] (it was not an e-mail address) but because it looked like one people used it like one and I basically had to go to .mac and pay for an account so that the wires did not cross.
2) I think OpenID is new and needs a new way to identify folks. And it is our job to teach people about this new way. Lots of services give people homepages within their spaces...myspace, AIMpages etc. so they can use those URL's if they don't have one yet they can get one.There's a bootstrapping problem here. It's very, very hard to promote the use of something that requires a more complex login flow to replace something that is very simple (albeit limited and in its own silo). How can we cross this chasm? Our suggestion is to support existing practice of [EMAIL PROTECTED] in a standard way, while being open to new practices. Once we can support both we can gain experience and start gradually migrating people over to the new world. At least that's my take.
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System Architect
http://abstractioneer.org
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