Using Email as User ID? good? Bad?

[Fritz]

I am beta testing my user authentication system and have

user id
password

for logging in...

Many that are testing have suggested that I simply use the user's EMAIL address FOR the USER ID at log in...

Can anyone tell me why this might be a bad idea?

[saidbakr]

Simply,
Your email may be attacked by spam mail.
It's so long ID to be written

[Fritz]

Originally posted by saidbakr
Simply,
Your email may be attacked by spam mail.
It's so long ID to be written

I have emails cloaked throughout the entire system. they are invisible in the source and surface code.

I am leaning towards doing this to keep things simple and give folks something that THEY will remember.

anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Fritz

[dinger]

There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to using an email address as a user ID.

The biggest advantage is that it is easy for your users to remember.

If it is a script that needs the email address for other purposes (i.e. to send invoices or confirmation emails) this may be a viable solution as it uses less space in the database.

However, if it is a script that does not require the email address for other reasons, it may be wise to use a different user ID.

There are pros and cons to both systems, and I have and do use both of them for different purposes.

Chris