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   Mistaken Identity in the TidBITS Commenting System

   Adam C. Engst

   Mea culpa! Some time ago, we found and fixed a cosmetic bug in the
   TidBITS Commenting System that caused a small number of people to be
   associated with another user's name when they attempted to post a
   comment. The problem arose when our code set an incorrect cookie in an
   unusual set of circumstances.

   It took a bit to realize what was going on, and although we fixed the
   bug as soon as we did, we don't know exactly how many people might have
   been affected. Unfortunately, because the incorrect identity is stored
   in a cookie with a far-in-the-future expiration date, the problem
   continues to crop up even now. Worse, we have no way of identifying or
   fixing these munged cookies from our side.

   The solution is simple: delete all cookies related to tidbits.com, but
   since we have no idea who might be affected and thus can't contact
   them, our only option is to write this article and hope that the
   affected users read it. Our sincere apologies both for this bug and for
   having to explain it here, but to make this article more broadly
   useful, here are instructions for deleting cookies in each of the three
   most popular Web browsers.

   Safari
    1. Choose Safari > Preferences to open Safari's Preferences window.
    2. Click the Privacy button.
    3. Next to Cookies And Other Website Data, click the Details button.
    4. In the search field, type tidbits.com
    5. Select the tidbits.com entry that appears, and click the Remove
       button.
       [1][tn_Safari-cookies.jpg]
    6. Click Done and close the Preferences window.

   Chrome
    1. Choose Chrome > Preferences to open Chrome's Settings page.
    2. At the bottom, click Show Advanced Settings.
    3. Under the Privacy heading (which is the first one to appear when
       you reveal advanced settings), click the Content Settings button.
    4. In the Content Settings dialog, under the Cookies heading, click
       the All Cookies and Site Data button.
    5. In the Cookies and Site Data dialog, enter tidbits.com in the
       search field.
    6. Select the tidbits.com entry, click the tbcomm button associated
       with the cookie we use for the TidBITS Commenting System, and click
       the Remove button. (You could also click the X button to delete all
       the tidbits.com associated cookies, and if you have cookies from
       other tidbits.com domains, you could remove all of them. The only
       downside is being logged out and the site forgetting your choice of
       Hide or Show Summaries.)
       [2][tn_Chrome-cookies.jpg]
    7. Close the Settings page.

   Firefox
    1. Choose Firefox > Preferences to open Firefox's Preferences window.
    2. Click the Privacy button.
    3. Under the History heading, click the Remove Individual Cookies
       link.
    4. In the Cookies window, enter tidbits.com in the Search field.
    5. If necessary, scroll down until you see the tidbits.com cookies,
       and specifically the item with tbcomm in the Cookie Name column.
       Select it, and click the Remove Cookie button.
       [3][tn_Firefox-cookies.jpg]
    6. Close the Cookies and Preferences windows.

References

   1. http://tidbits.com/resources/2013-04/Safari-cookies.png
   2. http://tidbits.com/resources/2013-04/Chrome-cookies.png
   3. http://tidbits.com/resources/2013-04/Firefox-cookies.png

.