Today's rant brought to you by The Nonusability Board of Broken Promises
This is a rant, and nothing but a rant. I am sick and tired of sites that promise to remember me if I will only take the time to place a little checkmark in a little box. They say that by doing so, I won't have to re-login in the future. So often, they are nothing but BIG, FAT LIARS.
I can live with the sites that forget about me if I haven't shown up for an extended period of time. Ok, maybe you had some time-limited cookie set or something like that, and I went beyond that limit. No problem. I can forgive that.
But the sites that can't remember me from one minute to the next drive me crazy! This seems to happen most often with the new-fangled whiz-bang Ajax-driven login screens, although it occasionally happens with old-fashioned forms as well.
It's not my fault, at least I don't think so. I've got my browser set to accept cookies, and my browser has javascript and java enabled. But does that help? NO!
I go to one of these sites.
I place the little checkmark into the little box.
I enter my login details and submit.
I surf the site as needed.
I close my browser.
Oh no, I forgot to do something at that site.
I open my browser.
I go back to the site.
Ack! I'm no longer logged in! It didn't remember me! Not even for 5 seconds. Grrrr.
One such site is even owned by someone we all know quite well, but I won't name names. So if any of you own a site that has a Remember Me checkbox, please run it through a few tests to make sure it actually works! If it doesn't work, and you can't get it to work, then get rid of it please. There, I've gotten that off my chest. Whew.
Donna this is one of my biggest pet peeves with sites. I don’t think I’ve ever found one that actually remembers me, though in all fairness to the sites they’re probably trying to remember me through a cookie I deleted.
Still it bugs me even if it is my fault. I stopped checking the remember me buttons a long time ago and just let my browser remember me. My browser and I have a much better relationship and it remembers me quite well.
I see that with some sites, but just need to hit “Refresh” for the site and browser to get back in sync again.
Hmmm…ok, g1smd, I’ll give the old refresh trick a try and see if that makes a difference or not.
Beautiful rant, Donna. As many as there are in life, they’re really not as easy to pull off as you just made it seem. The focus of the rant is one to which just about everyone can relate. Not to mention, for those serious about not only getting traffic but also retaining it, there’s a very powerful lesson it teaches, as well.
Thanks…!
Sam
Amen to that, Donna! I’ve been having just that trouble with a specific site lately, and it is driving me crazy! It used to remember me, but, not anymore! Ugh!
Oh my goodness, I thought it was just me. Or Firefox. Or Vista. Or something.