IBM Developerworks: FAIL!!!

Ovid on 2008-06-23T08:44:12

When I sign up for a new Web site, I use a strong password. A random password. Something that is unguessable and impossible for me to memorize. That's annoying, but it's important. I also discover all sorts of issues with Web sites as a result.

Today's issue was discovering three problems in one with signing up for IBM Developer Works:

  1. Their "minimum eight character" password field doesn't explain which characters are legal.
  2. Their rejection of my strong password doesn't tell me why it was rejected.
  3. Apparently they don't allow punctuation (or at least not double quotes and tildes).

Note to IBM: if you're going to tell us how to do technology right, please do technology right. Thank you.

Incidentally, my favorite "broken password" site (I can't say which one) is a site which allowed me to change my password to a strong password, but subsequently doesn't let me log in with it, forcing me to change my password several times).


My bank is worse

BillR on 2008-06-24T02:29:28

My bank does not allow any special characters at all. I need a new bank.