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It is my understanding that one of the central purposes of the new top bar was to unite the sites so that there is a feeling of staying within the same master site (Stack Exchange) as you browse the different sites.

Something that I think would help with this experience would be to keep the top bar logged in even when you are on sites that you have not set up an account for. I think this new feature should not automatically create you an account on that site, but should use some sort of general Stack Exchange network account to keep the top bar features active. This way I can still see my notifications and my top sites even when I'm on a site that I don't have an account on.

How does this sound? Is this doable?


EDIT - Maybe a "join this site" link where the rep and badges are normally to indicate that you don't have an account on the site you're currently viewing?

join this site link

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  • 16
    WANT! WANT! WANT NOW! Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 16:42
  • 13
    This would be very useful while I'm hopping around the "Hot Questions" list.
    – Geobits
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 17:07
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    +1 for join this stack, the text is just perfect! As well, it makes a perfect sense. And while they are there, the "you've just been logged in" popup seems to be unnecessary, automatic refreshing of the top bar should be enough.
    – yo'
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 17:34
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    As for only reloading the top bar, see the comments here, including "there's tons and tons page content that changes when you log in [...] Changing the whole page content unobtrusively is just close to impossible (think: deleted answers suddenly appearing, the links under the post changing, comment controls changing, vote arrows changing, etc.)", @tohecz.
    – Arjan
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 18:10
  • A great and a nice idea! :) +1 Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 18:25
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    "join this stack" isn't going to happen. We don't call our sites "stacks" and you shouldn't either. :) "join this site" could work, though. (cc @tohecz)
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 18:58
  • @AdamLear Another user has pointed this out to me. I chose "stack" for lack of ambiguity in this case. Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 19:00
  • @AdamLear I guess I understand that argument about "stacks" :)
    – yo'
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 19:12
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    This question with its image obviously belongs to meta.
    – galath
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 6:59
  • @AdamLear I think this should be status-completed now! :) Commented Jan 18, 2016 at 16:50

2 Answers 2

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This wasn't doable at the time when you requested this, but it became doable over the past year as we overhauled the login system entirely.

We did basically what you proposed (although I don't recall seeing this post before... despite the fact that I even left a comment at the time :)) - a "join this community" link in the top bar, and your inbox/achievements are still available as well.

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There are some login changing coming and one of the point of those changes is the "join this community" button in the top bar.

We are going to recognize you in some ways on sites where you don't have a profile. This is still a work in progress, but most notably you will see "join this community" in the top bar instead of "sign up" and "log in".

So, even if there won't be no other indicators (which would be made probably though, at least because of the first part of the sentence I quoted), your request is quite considered to be a pretty good one :)

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  • +1 They have added the "join this community" link. The primary focus of my question, however, is keeping the top bar logged in--which they have yet to do. So I will refrain from accepting your answer yet. Commented Jul 10, 2015 at 13:24
  • @called Yeah, I agree. I did request it and hope they'll consider it viable :)
    – nicael
    Commented Jul 10, 2015 at 13:42

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