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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 6:43 AM
Default Security questions are impossible for me to use
Is there some way for me to use custom security questions? There is no way that any of the currently available ones will do anything but lock me out of my account should they ever come up. None of the ":favorites" are things I have ever had favorites for. The "grandfather's occupation" one is a trick question as I would have to both remember which grandfather and which occupation I chose. I have no idea about my "first kiss--" I wasn't paying much attention. And so on. "Just make up an answer" is the obvious strategy, but the point of a security question is that I should be able to readily remember the answer! I have in fact been burned by this before, when a phone company refused to activate international dialing because I didn't know the correct answers to questions I had never considered before. There is actually only one question in the whole lot I could count on answering the same way every time.

So I guess that's the second question I have. If I can't use custom security questions, can I just use the only one I can trust myself to answer the same way every time?
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dodgy builder
#2 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 8:52 AM
Perhaps you have suggestions to other questions they can use? Can't be easy coming up with those questions either.
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
#3 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 9:44 AM
Thanks for the feedback. When I picked the questions I deliberately picked ones that weren't "normal" because database leaks happen all the time, so the standard "mothers maiden name" can be easy to guess. You can of course actually just make up an answer and use that as the same for all of them. That's what I do - the "mothers maiden name" in my other sites questions is not actually my mothers maiden name, it's another word that I know instead.

Sure, you could remember individual ones, or you could just use answers you remember. Whichever helps you in the end.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
One horse disagreer of the Apocalypse
#4 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 9:52 AM
I don't like this. If I make up an answer I will never remember it anyway, so it's pointless. And the only sites I fill in these sorts of questions are my bank etc where security is actually important. I don't want personal Q&A about my life held in more places than absolutely necessary for my safety and financial security, that doesn't include gaming social sites.

"You can do refraction by raymarching through the depth buffer" (c. Reddeyfish 2017)
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
#5 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 10:10 AM
So don't use it then. The only point it'll ever be used if in the password recovery section if the normal checks fail *and* the email recovery method doesn't work, so it's a fallback mechanism. It's not mandatory to fill them in if you don't want to.

Or, like I've already said, just make up answers that don't have anything to do with the question. :P

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#6 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 12:13 PM
Do what I do - use your password vault to generate a random string for each "answer" and save the answers (along with which questions they correspond to) in said password vault.

(Don't do the other thing I did many years back, which was to save the answer to a series of bank security questions as "This is completely insecure" and "Waste of f***ing time", because then when the poor phone CS rep has to use them to confirm *his* identity, he won't be able to because he's not allowed to swear down the phone at customers.)

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Scholar
Original Poster
#7 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 5:57 PM
So I can just ignore the request to set up the security questions? That does seem like the simplest solution. Thanks!

I have trouble with the questions at other sites too. Anything based on favorites is going to cause me a problem, because I don't have favorites & it's a crapshoot as to whether I'll ever remember what I made up on the spot.

& when people mention password vaults I just feel ashamed because I'll never be organized enough for that.
One horse disagreer of the Apocalypse
#8 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 6:34 PM
I did mine but I won't announce here what I put just in case someone *does* try to log in as me for a jape.

"You can do refraction by raymarching through the depth buffer" (c. Reddeyfish 2017)
dodgy builder
#9 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 7:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Inge Jones
I did mine but I won't announce here what I put just in case someone *does* try to log in as me for a jape.


I think for the sake of this community, we should all agree on what to answer. Being part of something is important.
Scholar
Original Poster
#10 Old 2nd Nov 2016 at 9:01 PM
So we could all for example answer every question with the exact words "My dog?"
Site Helper
#11 Old 4th Nov 2016 at 1:14 AM
Out of curiosity, if the security question is used, is there going to be any human involvement with matching up the answer? I was going to use the "where were you when you had your first kiss?" question, but after I typed out my answer I realized that the odds of me being able to remember the exact words I used if I had forgotten the one word I use as a password is even smaller than when I had to remember which color was being my favorite color on the day I had to use a favorite color on a website security question. I did pick a different question, but it's going to be awfully easy for someone to guess my answer.

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