What is an OpenID Account?

OpenID is a way for you to take the account you've created from another site that supports OpenID and use it to comment or participate in communities on Dreamwidth. Sites that offer OpenID support include all sites based on recent versions of the LiveJournal code, all sites based on Dreamwidth code, many email providers, and many more.

After you've logged in to your regular site, you can log into Dreamwidth using OpenID. When you're setting up your OpenID for use on our site, the other site will ask you if they can "pass your credentials" to Dreamwidth. This is how your identity is validated and why you need to be logged in to another site to log in to Dreamwidth with OpenID.

After setting up the account, you should set and confirm your email address for use on the Dreamwidth site. If you do, you will be able to receive emailed notifications of replies to your comments, and your account will be treated like a Dreamwidth account for the purposes of comment screening and comment security in other journals. If you don't, your account will be treated like an anonymous commenter.

Once you've set up your OpenID account, you can use it in many of the same ways you would use a regular account. The main difference between an OpenID account and an account you maintain on Dreamwidth itself is that you can't post entries in your own journal with an OpenID account, since OpenID accounts don't have journals. However, OpenID accounts can post comments in other journals, subscribe to other journals, use a Reading Page, and be added to other people's access lists, and participate in communities.

As with Dreamwidth accounts, you'll only be able to read locked content in a journal if the journal owner has added you to the access list for that journal.