SSL, OpenID, and Search Engine-friendly URLs, oh my!

I've been busy on the website lately, and have quietly rolled out some new features that I'd like to talk about.

First, we have SSL (encryption) for the entire site. You may now browse securely to https://www.anthrocon.org/, and your session will be encrypted. Furthermore, encryption is now forced when trying to log into the site.

The next thing that has been implemented is OpenID. You can now associate your Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Yahoo, or Google accounts with your user account here on the Anthrocon website. To do that, while logged in, click this link to go to the Open ID account configuration:

(Related reading: OpenID Explained)

Next, click the link Add 3rd party identifier:

That will cause this dialog to pop up:

Now just click the service you want to associate with your account, follow the prompts, and you're done!

Yes, you can associate more than one OpenID with your account here.

"So how does this help me?"

It gives you one less password to keep track of when creating your account here or signing into your account here. You can start logging in with Twitter, Facebook, or some other service. Just click the appropriate icon on the login page.

"Can I create an account this way?"

Yep. Just click the appropriate link at the bottom of the sign in screen:

And you'll be promoted with the chance to create an account.

"That was long. Anything else new on the site?"

Yep, search engine-friendly URLs.

Whereas before our URLs looked kinda bland like this:

http://www.anthrocon.org/node/5944

They now have the title rolled into them, like this:

http://www.anthrocon.org/node/5944/congratulations-general-talon

That makes it a little clearly what the page is about, and Google likes that too.

Enjoy, and let me know if there are any questions!