Dear Powers That Be, Why are we always having to unlock our screen names with passwords that ressemble ridiculous codes that have Pentagon strength security ? I have now had to do this twice. Admittedly the second code sent was fractionally easier for my AZERTY keyboard to cope with, but I had already been unlocked only to find myself locked out again, but with the new code supplied. Can we know if it is suspected the Russians are learning more than they should know about NASA from Astronomy.com ?!

Do you mean your login password? You can change that yourself. Otherwise, I'm not sure what codes you're talking about.

??

chipdatajeffB:

Do you mean your login password? You can change that yourself. Otherwise, I'm not sure what codes you're talking about.

??

 

I think that is what Polariser is talking about, the login password. If I'm not mistaken, those passwords are temporary, and you have to reset it with your own password. If you don't reset it, the password that is emailed to you expires and that's why you would have to reactivate your user name. 

Sorry to contradict you, Kevin, but I do not think that is what I was referring to. My "Login" password is so simple and relevant to me that I could only have invented it myself - only I never seem to have to use it : I am already automatically logged in ! However, to spill metaphorical ink on these illustrious boards I have now been asked twice to "unlock mmy screen name" ... Naturally I did not know how, so I asked for my password and was given a quite remarkable concoction of symbols which you Kevin already know about through personal correspondence.When I tried to apply it it did not seem to work and I imagined this might be because I could not replicate the symbols correctly with my continental AZERTY keyboard. I complained, found myself temporarily able to write again (recent message in Polls on "singularity") and then my "licence" withdrawn and asked again to unlock name using another code which actually worked ! I think the story has no hidden side and is no more complicated than that !

Polariser,

Please try this for me. Go into your browser settings and delete all cookies for Astronomy.com and Kalmbach.com and retry. I've seen this happen once in a while where the client browser is holding onto a corrupt or invalid cookie.

Please report back - sorry for the inconvenience.

I've had the same thing come up a number of times & didn't have to delete cookies to rectify the problem , though it is rather annoying .

I've had to unlock my screen name several times as well, though with no difficulty, but I never did understand the reason behind it as I usually reset my password to my liking afterwards. But it would be interesting to find out why.

Welmblad - thanks for the advice. I will try it someday when I get locked out again. For the moment everything is fine. NTTTTTY; (Never trouble trouble 'til trouble troubles you !)