Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Explaining the Login Options for Challenge Builder

Some have asked about our options to Sign In to Challenge Builder, so we wanted to share a little more background on how this works and why we've chosen our current approach.


The first question we received from quite a few of you was – “Why is Facebook the only option, can’t I use something else?”  Yes, there are over 1 Billion Facebook users (at least if you count the fake ones).  But we realize not everyone has a Facebook account, and some people are very opposed to creating an account.

Well, we heard you loud and clear.  And we just added an option to login using a Google account.  For those who don’t have either account, hopefully most are less resistant to creating a Google account (it’s free and easy, and you won’t have to deal with all those people from high school you haven’t talked to in years).  And if you have a Gmail account, or use the Google Play app store for an Android-based phone, you already have one.

The other question we’ve heard is – “Why do I have to use one of these accounts, can’t I just use my email and create a password?”  We’ve actually made a conscious decision not to provide this option.  And that decision was made with our end-users in mind – we actually think it’s a better experience for you.  For one, you don’t have yet another password to remember.  The other benefit is security – you don’t have to worry about us getting hacked and your password getting compromised.  That’s because we never actually even see, let alone store your password.  (If you’re interested in the technical details of how this works, just Google “OAuth” and you’ll get more information than you ever wanted.  Of course, if this sort of thing is interesting to you, you probably already know how OAuth works.)

We hope this clears up any confusion.  If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know on our Forums.

-The Challenge Builder Team