metafilter.com redirecting to login page

September 30, 2008 1:26 PM

www.metafilter.com just redirected me several times to the login page. Then I received a warning message about security certificates. I chanced it and logged in, now everything's normal. Anybody else getting this? (btw, subdomains also redirected me to the login page).

is mefi members only now?

posted by Baby_Balrog to Bugs at 1:26 PM (19 comments total)

It's not members only, but if you haven't logged in within the last six months or so, you might have to go through the login process once. We made a few more security changes recently so we can get rid of an older identification method based on the user_pass cookie. It's supposed to happen silently behind the scenes, but that cookie swap probably caused your login headaches.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:30 PM on September 30, 2008

ah. this is probably the case.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:32 PM on September 30, 2008

Didn't you get the new Mefi Members Only jacket, B?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:48 PM on September 30, 2008 [2 favorites]

Then I received a warning message about security certificates. I chanced it and logged in, now everything's normal.

Except for the fact that mathowie now knows your bank account information, and the name of your first pet.
posted by inigo2 at 1:52 PM on September 30, 2008

Baby_Balrog,

I loved the press conference where your $700 billion contribution to Wall Street was announced.
posted by lukemeister at 2:19 PM on September 30, 2008

My first pet was Farfarello. Well, the kind of farfarello you could order from the back pages of a comic book. a sinister comic book.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 2:47 PM on September 30, 2008

This has happened to me on three different machines today. On one, I only got redirected to the login prompt once -- on the other two I got it multiple times. Everything seems to be normal again now and I'm pretty much out of computers.
posted by Lame_username at 6:53 PM on September 30, 2008

I've never had to log into Mefi before. It was rather traumatic that you guys didn't recognize me. Instant identity crisis!

I even feel a little different now--a lack of confidence and a little unsteady on my feet. Will this pass?
posted by leftcoastbob at 9:29 PM on September 30, 2008

Didn't you get the new Mefi Members Only jacket, B?

If someone puts a MeFi logo on a Members Only jacket, I will not buy it, but I will look at pictures of people who did and laugh.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:30 PM on September 30, 2008

No, I'd totally buy that.
posted by Jofus at 10:53 PM on September 30, 2008

In order to increase the security of all MetaFilter computing facilities, and to avoid the possibility of unauthorized use of these facilities, new rules are being put into effect concerning the selection of passwords. All users of MetaFilter facilities are instructed to change their passwords to conform to these rules immediately.

RULES FOR THE SELECTION OF PASSWORDS:

1. A password must be at least six characters long, and must not contain two occurrences of a character in a row, or a sequence of two or more characters from the alphabet in forward or reverse order. Example: HGQQXP is an invalid password. GFEDCB is an invalid password.

2. A password may not contain two or more letters in the same position as any previous password. Example: If a previous password was GKPWTZ, then NRPWHS would be invalid because PW occurs in the same position in both passwords.

3. A password may not contain the name of a month or an abbreviation for a month. Example: MARCHBC is an invalid password. VWMARBC is an invalid password.

4. A password may not contain the numeric representation of a month. Therefore, a password containing any number except zero is invalid. Example: WKBH3LG is invalid because it contains the numeric representation for the month of March.

5. A password may not contain any words from any language. Thus, a password may not contain the letters A, or I, or sequences such as AT, ME, or TO because these are all words.

6. A password may not contain sequences of two or more characters which are adjacent to each other on a keyboard in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. Example: QWERTY is an invalid password. GHNLWT is an invalid password because G and H are horizontally adjacent to each other. HUKWVM is an invalid password because H and U are diagonally adjacent to each other.

7. A password may not contain the name of a person, place, or thing. Example: JOHNBOY is an invalid password.

Because of the complexity of the password selection rules, there is actually only one password which passes all the tests. To make the selection of this password simpler for the user, it will be distributed to all members of record before Sept. 11, 2001. Other members are instructed to obtain this password from his or her contacts and begin using it immediately.

CORPORATE DIRECTIVE NUMBER 88-570471
posted by netbros at 11:18 PM on September 30, 2008

Metafilter is logging me out every two hours or so. This started a little over 24 hours ago. I quit my browser, restarted it, still happens. Please help.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 8:06 PM on October 1, 2008

What browser Crabby? And have you tried deleting all metafilter.com cookies, then re-logging in?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:15 PM on October 1, 2008

I am having trouble here, too. MeTa knows I am logged in, but Ask and the Blue won't let me log in. I use IE 7.0 and have deleted all cookies.
posted by sagwalla at 7:50 AM on October 2, 2008

sagwalla (and anyone else with this problem), please hit this page and send me the results via MeFi Mail. That will give me a bit more information to go on.

Though if you're able to post here in MetaTalk you should be fine everywhere else, the identity verification stuff is the same across all sites. You might make sure that you delete all cookies across all metafilter domains, including ask.metafilter.com. And it couldn't hurt to click the sign out link above, shut down your browser, and re-login.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:47 AM on October 2, 2008

I sent MeFi Mail to pb. I'm running IE6 on Windows 2000. I tried deleting all cookies, signing out, and restarting the browser, all to no avail. I'll wait to hear from pb. Thanks for taking a look at this.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 1:58 PM on October 2, 2008

pb - I can't find mefimail now. This is very weird - I can see my inbox / outbox; I can't find any path to compose mefimail.
posted by sagwalla at 5:08 AM on October 3, 2008

Go to pb's profile page. There' s a "send mefimail" link.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:41 AM on October 3, 2008

I have signed out, deleted all mefi cookies, askmefi included and close/reopened browser (IE7), but the problem is still occurring. Am sending pb the browser check page details, but thought I'd better broadcast my tragedy to a wider audience, in case others are suffering as I am.
posted by Onanist at 8:57 AM on October 3, 2008