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On any other site in the Stack Exchange network, if I try to sign up it offers to use my existing Stack Overflow login. I've used this feature many times; the upside is that you get an immediate 100 points on the site you joined and can start voting or leaving comments right away. Ask Ubuntu doesn't seem to offer this.

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  • Might be a third-party cookie denial / browser security thing. It got stricter since this year or so, at least for Chrome. AskUbuntu is on its domain. I suspect if you click login and provide your credentials you use every where else you should get joined there.
    – rene
    Jul 23, 2022 at 15:58
  • Very related: Switching to Ask Ubuntu no longer works.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Jul 23, 2022 at 18:09

1 Answer 1

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That's because you already have associated account there, and you got the 100 points bonus almost 11 years ago:

association bonus of 100 points given in September 20, 2011

Since you can't associate the same account twice on same site, you also can't get the bonus twice, that won't be fair.

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  • Interesting. So now the question becomes, why doesn't it automatically log me in like it does with every other site?
    – Mark Ransom
    Jul 23, 2022 at 17:38
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    @MarkRansom different domain, different cookies, different required browser permissions. When you explicitly try to login, what happens though? If you get error, or logged with a new account, you'll have to contact SE.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Jul 23, 2022 at 17:59
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    I was able to successfully log in with my Stack Overflow password. Thanks!
    – Mark Ransom
    Jul 23, 2022 at 19:16
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    @MarkRansom: I'm guessing it has to do with Ask Ubuntu not being on a .stackexchange.com subdomain, but rather its own domain.
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Jul 23, 2022 at 19:19
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    @V2Blast but I can go to superuser.com and I'm already logged in there. Maybe I already logged in there a long time ago - once a login cookie is generated, how long does it last?
    – Mark Ransom
    Jul 23, 2022 at 19:25
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    @MarkRansom: Honestly, I have no idea. There's probably a Q&A somewhere about it on MSE :P I just know that if you haven't logged in on SU or SO before, then you generally aren't auto-logged in even if you're logged in on SE sites with a .stackexchange.com subdomain. Once you do log in, though, it should keep you logged in until/unless you clear cookies.
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Jul 23, 2022 at 19:25
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    @MarkRansom: Looks like the cookie expires after 6 months (but is refreshed when you use the site), per these MSE posts: When does a login happen automatically?, How long does an unregistered user's cookie remain valid?
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Jul 23, 2022 at 19:35
  • @Mark see above comments. (colon after your name might have prevented the ping.)
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Jul 23, 2022 at 20:06
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    @V2Blast It's because recently, browser vendors began requiring sites to send a SameSite attribute in cookies to make them cross-site, without which the cookie will only be applied to the same second-level domain. I'm not sure if an existing bug report exists for that, but per this answer to a support question, that's the cause. Prior to that, it used to work for all seven second-level domains on which SE sites are hosted, unless the user disabled cross-site (third-party) cookies or the browser disabled them by default (e.g. Safari).
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Jul 24, 2022 at 9:40

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