[aliglia]

I have never understood why I need to type my password twice. Inevitably I just copy what I wrote in the first box into the second.

I'm also interested in the elimination of the post sign-up confirmation email. I'd rather get a "Welcome! If you didn't sign up for this service, click here" email, but I can imagine that if I didn't actually sign up for the service, I'd never want to "click here" for fear of spam. There has to be another option, though. Anyone have any bright ideas?

[beagle3]

> I have never understood why I need to type my password twice. Inevitably I just copy what I wrote in the first box into the second.

You have to type it twice, because you don't see what you typed the first time -- it's a validation.

You don't see what you typed the first one, because that's "standard practice" for passwords, so that no one looking over your shoulder will see the password you typed.

That makes sense sometimes -- e.g., when you register for your new gmail at a starbucks. For me, 99.9% of the time, that's not an issue -- I'd much rather have a checkbox that says "press here to hide password".

But that's the standard practice.

[blasdel]

Having to type your password twice is a perfect UI affordance -- it makes it obvious that you're signing up for a new account and not just logging in to an existing one.

It's especially important because a streamlined workflow will have both forms on the same page. It's infuriating to try to log in and get an "account already exists" error. HN is one of the very few sites that make this mistake.

[rsoto]

You type your password twice because you might make a mistake. Also, you can't copy anything from passwords fields.

[aliglia]

Sorry I misspoke -- I copy/paste from email confirmation fields. And I understand why password confirmations exist, but I think the option posed in this article is a much more elegant solution to that issue.

[neatoincognito]

The post sign-up confirmation email is proof to the service that you indeed opted-in to their service and agree to receive future emails. Without a confirmation, the service is at risk of being blacklisted for spam.

[aliglia]

Yeah, I understand. The email confirmation link just seems like such a barrier to entry. Do you get annoyed every time you have to go confirm your email address? I do.