SSO and LP email addresses get out of sync too easily

[Selene ToyKeeper]

One common theme I encounter with login support is that a user has changed their addresses in LP or in SSO but not in both, and then something breaks because the two are out of sync. For example, it fails if a user updates their address in LP then tries to log in with that address. Sometimes it stops there, but sometimes they create a new SSO account with the updated address, and things then require account merges in order to get access again. Or, a user will change their SSO address and wonder why LP mail doesn't go to the new address.

I can find other examples in past support tickets if desired, but the point is that the fragile-to-nonexistent address synchronization causes user issues. I'd like to fix this if possible.

Some ideas for fixing it:

  - Store all email addresses in SSO, and reload into LP on each login. This may require additional openID extensions, and code to handle odd cases in LP (such as an address being deleted when it was in use for a mailing list).

  - Separate LP and SSO even more, to make it clear to users that the two are not tightly integrated or closely related. One approach might be to get rid of login.launchpad.net and add UI bits in both LP and SSO to point out that they are different systems which do not share a common set of addresses.

... other ideas?

[Robert Collins (lifeless)]

We have an existing (well, several) bugs about this, so I've duped this onto a past one. I agree its important.

[Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper)]

Thanks. I could have sworn I saw a bug for this or heard someone talking about it, but I couldn't find it.