He’s very happy that he is now logged in. It must work just like on Facebook, Google, etc where you don’t even have to enter your password because it remembers you from before… (They just weren’t sure if you really wanted to log in today so had you do that one click formality.) How clever and modern.
But wait. What’s that in a fine print… Aw… we haven’t actually logged in yet.
Anyway just the other day I was on Stack Exchange and it said something like welcome back but that’s only after it was sure it knew who it was talking to. You don’t just go saying welcome back to strangers do you now?
Okay, I just tested it with a fresh browser. I’m certain it didn’t even have one little cookie of mine. But it still said welcome back.
It’s like a drunk bartender who thinks everybody’s been there before. Or like at some hippie Rainbow Gathering Welcome Center where everybody in the world are all Brothers and Sisters.
Anyway, Google and Facebook don’t say such friendly things until they’re sure who they are talking to.
Anyway, we are not entering some new state. We still are working on trying to log in. It’s just that some distraction has been thrown up making us sit up and think for about 20 seconds about what is going on.
Also note I’m not discussing any one particular Discourse site.
There is an argument anyone willing to LOG IN was necessarily there before (to register!)
I don’t find this shocking at all. There is even a quite positive aspect to it: Being excited that someone is about to log in again.
Both POVs are valid, IMHO. I feel the current way of doing it is “nicer”.
I guess your best argument would be this one, however sad the idea is:
Sure, if we follow a link to a site’s home page, we see both “Sign Up”
and “Log In” buttons. The former leads us to “Welcome! Let’s create your
account.” So far so good.
But if say we followed a link to this comment that you are reading, then
there is no “Sign Up” button, only a “Log In” button, with the
aforementioned over-assumption that the user has been there before.
But wait, if we scroll up some more, then suddenly…
Sign Up appears.
OK, now let’s dive into even deeper Mr. Nebbercracker thought here.
Even if “Sign Up” was present, by the time the user scrolls down (and reads the e.g., nonsense (that e.g., I am) posting), and gets the urge to reply, by that time the SIgn Up button has disappeared and all that is left is the Log In button with its unfortunate assumption that the user is “back”.
Then the whole argument becomes that the “welcome back” will implicitly indicate to the user he clicked a login button and not a signup one He will just have to adjust by clicking the “create your account” link at the bottom right. All is well.
Will that user be traumatized by the “welcome back - log in to your account” he just saw? I honestly don’t think so, but that’s just my opinion. No offense, but this does give me some “first world problem” vibe. I find it harmless and unimportant, but I can understand if you feel this is important from your POV (is it, though?). Cheers.
This seems relatively minor @jidanni. I think it is something that we would leave to site admins to customise for themselves, and is currently not something we are actively looking at changing.
I’ll close this off, but the suggestion has been noted.
He will just have to adjust by clicking the “create your account” link at the bottom right. All is well.