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Distributed authentication
One of the more tedious moments in visiting a new website is filling out the registration form. Here at sstream of consciousness, you do not have to fill out a registration form if you are already a member of Drupal. This capability is called distributed authentication, and is unique to Drupal, the software which powers sstream of consciousness.
Distributed authentication enables a new user to input a username and password into the login box, and immediately be recognized, even if that user never registered at sstream of consciousness. This works because Drupal knows how to communicate with external registration databases. For example, lets say that new user 'Joe' is already a registered member of Delphi Forums. Drupal informs Joe on registration and login screens that he may login with his Delphi ID instead of registering with sstream of consciousness. Joe likes that idea, and logs in with a username of joe@remote.delphiforums.com and his usual Delphi password. Drupal then contacts the remote.delphiforums.com server behind the scenes (usually using XML-RPC, HTTP POST, or SOAP) and asks: "Is the password for user Joe correct?". If Delphi replies yes, then we create a new sstream of consciousness account for Joe and log him into it. Joe may keep on logging into sstream of consciousness in the same manner, and he will always be logged into the same account.
Drupal
Drupal is the name of the software which powers sstream of consciousness. There are Drupal web sites all over the world, and many of them share their registration databases so that users may freely login to any Drupal site using a single Drupal ID.
So please feel free to login to your account here at sstream of consciousness with a username from another Drupal site. The format of a Drupal ID is similar to an email address: username@server. An example of a valid Drupal ID is mwlily@www.drupal.org.
