What is an OpenID Account?

OpenID is a way for you to take the account you've created from another site that supports OpenID (such as LiveJournal or Blogger) and use it to create an OpenID account on the Dreamwidth Studios site.

Sites that offer OpenID support include Blogger, all sites based on recent versions of the LiveJournal code, and all sites based on Dreamwidth code. After you've logged in to your regular site, you can create your Dreamwidth OpenID Account. When you're setting up your OpenID Account 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 creating the account, you'll need to set and confirm your email address for use on the Dreamwidth site.

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 with an OpenID account. 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. As with Dreamwidth accounts, you'll only be able to read protected content if you've been added to the Access List for that account.