People are told, over and over, that it's not a good idea to share passwords, but they still do it! Here's a simple solution: when the user enters a password, check that it contains at least one obscene word. Most people know plenty of bad words, but are shy of saying them out loud, and would certainly not want to put them up on a post-it note for the world to see. For added embarrassment, require that the name of at least one co-worker be included in the password.-- pdg37, Jul 29 2004 (?) account setup http://www.deconfusion.org/login/okay, I baked the idea for you [pdg37, Oct 06 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] Yours is a special brand of genius, [pdg].-- bungston, Jul 29 2004 Sorry, Zanzibar, I deleted your most eloquent note. See, I am one of those shy people!-- pdg37, Jul 29 2004 All my passwords are obscene. :)~ I'm going to start adding pdg37 to them now.
and I want to know what Zanzibar said !-- PinkDrink, Jul 29 2004 I said fuck[pdg37]
As I wrote it I realised just how effective it would be as a password: -Easy to remember -Mixed alpha, numer & symbols -Eleven characters -Not a dictionary word
I'm unsure why the annotation had to be deleted. I even voted "for" the idea.-- Zanzibar, Jul 29 2004 I guess I didn't notice the [pdg37] part. Good example! But I'm not your co-worker, so it's not embarrassing. Try it with your boss's login now, on a post-it note, stuck to your monitor.-- pdg37, Jul 29 2004 I don't have a boss. Should I get one?-- Zanzibar, Jul 29 2004 Nahh, it's better to have underlings. PS it doesn't count if your boss is named "Steve Hitman" or something of that sort.
I should also point out that "password" itself contains a bad word.-- pdg37, Jul 29 2004 What, "sword"? What's wrong with that? It's not the sword that kills, it's the user.-- Zanzibar, Jul 29 2004 [Zanzibar] you're bad. lol-- PinkDrink, Jul 29 2004 what is so offensive about "[pdg37]"-- tasman, Jul 29 2004 We have a department staffed by freelancers who all need access to certain PC's and mail accounts. The passwords all need updating monthly so we keep a log of them all in a big folder that everyone can grab off the shelf when needed. That's why I'm giving this a [+].-- wagster, Jul 29 2004 What's the point? MSCensor still edits your password so that "******" is displayed. Where's the fun in that?
(Note: humour. Not to be taken seriously.)-- egbert, Jul 29 2004 And you will notice the 37 is upside-down French "le". Clearly, the offensive capitalist connection is hiding in there. Okay guys, since we reached 10 votes, I will go implement a demo of this feature for you now...-- pdg37, Jul 30 2004 See link for a baked version. Enjoy!-- pdg37, Jul 30 2004 Unfortunately, for now, membership is ephermeral and has no benefits - except letting you express your true feelings. I'll add something more a bit later...maybe a little members-only message board?-- pdg37, Jul 30 2004 On a practical note, passwords would be so much easier to crack if they had to contain an obscenity. Sure, postits are pretty low security, but if you want to improve the password, making it easier to break is not the way to do it [-]-- zen_tom, Jul 30 2004 Selected obscenities and anatomical terms in halfbakery passwords:
71 fuck 45 ass/arse 41 poop 35 shit 16 fart 14 dick 11 bollocks 4 cunt 4 piss 4 pussy 3 vagina 2 penis-- jutta, Jul 30 2004 Hah! I can claim one of those fucks, jutta.-- quarterbaker, Jul 30 2004 You missed mine, jutta. Too British for you?-- lintkeeper2, Jul 30 2004 In the sense that it is probably used in Halfbakery passwords, it's obscene.-- angel, Jul 30 2004 i try and relate my passwords to my usernames. Applying this rule to the people I feel like applying it to and assuming they have obscene passwords of some kind, I am suspiscious now of [PinkDrink], [bungston], and possibly [angel].
Especially [PinkDrink].-- Eugene, Jul 30 2004 [jutta], that's... kinda weird. You built and ran an obscenities query on passwords? Funny, yes, somewhat... weirds me out, though.-- absterge, Jul 30 2004 ..... now tacking [Eugene] onto the end of one of my obscene passwords. ;)-- PinkDrink, Jul 31 2004 absterge: more likely she just ran a query on passwords and cut out the non-obscene ones. But, sheesh, jutta, storing passwords in the clear...-- DrCurry, Jul 31 2004 A fact that is disclosed in the help file.-- half, Jul 31 2004 As if anyone around here ever read the Help file! But fair enough.-- DrCurry, Jul 31 2004 I stopped using obscenities in passwords many moons ago because I kept forgetting my password -- hey, the shoemaker's kids never wear shoes. Any of you who recall getting on the phone to call your center for a password reset should appreciate that.-- dpsyplc, Jul 31 2004 Voted against it simply because it's almost as hard for me to type a swear word as it is to say one. (And believe me, it's IMPOSSIBLE to get me to -say- one; I just have that kinda dislike for swearing.)
Maybe I might be able to type them if I had to create a censor filter for something (being that it's one-time and for a good cause), but I couldn't go about typing it every time I had to log in.
Regarding the list of curses from passwords... The very word "password" could show up among the 35 "a--" passwords.-- Albino Fox, Jul 31 2004 I can remember typing one only once.-- half, Jul 31 2004 Yes, it would help me remember my password quite well.... "Oh, shit. I've forgotten my password. On second thoughts, I've remembered it again"-- Ling, Jul 31 2004 // Regarding the list of curses from passwords... The very word "password" could show up among the 35 "a--" passwords.// No, I filtered out obvious off-topic inclusion.-- jutta, Jul 31 2004 random, halfbakery