The Registration Settings page allows you to enable registration for your blog. This is a powerful new capability in Movable Type 4 which enables visitors to your blog to register, create an account, and then use that account to sign in and leave comments on your blog. Additionally on this page you can determine the methods by which commenters can identify themselves when they leave comments -- anonymously, through Movable Type's registration system, through OpenID or through Six Apart's hosted services.

• User Registration: This setting enables visitors to register as members of the blog. This field must be checked if you plan on having commenters authenticate using Movable Type's local user authentication system.

• Allowed Authentication Methods: This option allows you to configure one or more commenter authentication methods, in addition to enabling comments from anonymous (i.e. unauthenticated) users. The options are:

  • Anonymous Commenters: When checked, Movable Type will allow comments from anonymous (i.e. unauthenticated) users. Movable Type's default templates include fields for users to provide their name, email address and URL, but even when users provide this information they are considered "Anonymous" because they have not authenticated through Movable Type or an OpenID service.
  • Movable Type Native: When checked, Movable Type will allow comments from users who have registered (and then authenticate) through your installation of Movable Type. Learn more about Movable Type's member registration and authentication system.
  • OpenID: When checked, Movable Type will allow comments from users who have authenticated through an OpenID provider. When signing in to comment, users will be prompted to enter their OpenID URL. The system will then attempt to authenticate them at their OpenID provider, which may ask them to provide their username and password. On successful authentication at their OpenID provider the user will be redirected back to your blog to leave their comment.
  • LiveJournal: When checked, Movable Type will allow comments from users who have authenticated through the LiveJournal.com service (using OpenID). When signing in to comment, users will be prompted to enter their LiveJournal username. The system will then attempt to authenticate them (using the OpenID standard) at LiveJournal.com, which may ask them to provide their username and password. On successful authentication at LiveJournal.com the user will be redirected back to your blog to leave their comment.
  • Vox: When checked, Movable Type will allow comments from users who have authenticated through the Vox.com service (using OpenID). When signing in to comment, users will be prompted to enter their Vox URL. The system will then attempt to authenticate them (using the OpenID standard) at Vox.com, which may ask them to provide their username and password. On successful authentication at Vox the user will be redirected back to your blog to leave their comment.
  • TypeKey: When checked, Movable type will allow comments from users who have authenticated through the TypeKey.com service (using the TypeKey API). When signing in to comment, users will be directed to the TypeKey site to authenticate. On successful authentication at TypeKey the user will be redirected back to your blog to leave their comment. Additionally, you can also require the TypeKey service to pass the commenters email address back to Movable Type.