Making Logout more accessible

Dev
1

Right from day one of using Discourse it has been a minor irritant that you have to click an extra time (compared with most other systems) to get to the Logout link.
TopRightAvatar - name - logout. Most other places Logout is accessed as a top level option under your avatar or main menu, but here the default display when you click on the avatar is a load of guff which I seldom need and is all available elsewhere anyway.
Likewise your preferences are hidden by default.

So I’ve been poking around to see if I can either change the default display to be the simple menu that you get when you click your name once you have clicked your avatar, or to add a Logout link to the top section of the veganburger (three bars) menu.

But I’m stuck. There is no link on the <a> tag for Log Out

What I’d really like is to make the avatar click actually open the useful menu directly and not the bell list by default. The bell and bookmarks icons that appear at the top right when you click your avatar could simply be added to the menu (messages is already duplicated in the menu)

Any clues please?

1 Like
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I think you can do it with a theme component. On desktop you can type ZZ to log out.

3 Likes
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Well whadayaknow :astonished: That works!
I wonder if there are other similar keyboard shortcuts and where they are documented.
A theme component would be a good solution, but what should the link/button do - there is no logout url as far as I can see? I wonder how ZZ works…

5

Try typing a ? and you’ll get a list

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Just a point though … if you are logging into a with a secure account on the OS, why do you need to log out so much?

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OS= ???

Why would you leave yourself logged in to anything when you had finished using it. Very insecure practice and bad habit it seems to me.

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Operating System. Do you leave you desktop open for everyone to use? No-one can get to that session if you are using a modern operating system and you are logged out.

I’d say the opposite. Logging out regularly is going to dissuade someone from using 2 factor auth and that is far less secure as its more about account exposure away from your desktop (on the wider internet) than exposure at it (usually safe in your house).

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I will never willingly use 2 factor authentication - I find it a complete nightmare and terribly intrusive and inconvenient. It destroys usability. It is part of the larger atomisation and cult of the individual which is destroying society. I tend to believe that people are basically good and trustworthy, and running scared from the slightest risk is simply allowing the few bad apples to pollute the whole barrel.
But that is just my opinion which may be at variance with received wisdom.

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So you are criticising Discourse for bad security UI but you refuse to use 2 factor auth? Each to their own!

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Actually in the OP I wasn’t criticising Discourse for bad security, I was criticising it for making it hard (by one little extra click) to get to the stuff I expect to see under my icon - the menu list containing Summary|Activity|Messages|…|Log Out.

By doing away with the bell, bookmark and messages tabs and having them as simple menu entires with the rest then everything would be in one place (and it would take one extra little click to get to the notifications instead).

So back on topic what I was asking for was some clues as to how to make the Avatar click open at the menu list, not the bell tab…