I’m not much of a commenter when it comes to online news articles. I sometimes feel like blurting out at the end of a Guardian piece but usually someone else has had the same thought and in any case it’s buried in a stream of one-upmanship, aloofness and vitriol. But when I read this Huffington Post article, at the time devoid of comments, I thought I’d get involved. I was offered to connect via Twitter. “Why not?” I thought.

Because it doesn’t work.

Let’s get started. “Login or connect with Twitter”. Overlooking the questionable use of “login”, it sounds good.

Up pops a pop-up with a familiar-looking and thus somewhat reassuring authorisation message:

I click the Sign In button and the authorisation apparently takes place, and presently the pop-up now contains the following options:

At this stage, I had expected to be logged in, connected, authorised, whatever… Instead I have to make a choice. Already have an account? Well, I’m authorised, so maybe. But that’s prompting me for a password which doesn’t seem right. Need an account? Perhaps I do. Perhaps the Twitter authorisation simply allows me to make a Huffington Post account, and I can’t post without one. So I opt for this second avenue and provide my email address.

The Sign Up button momentarily changes to an ajax/loading animated GIF and then… the Sign Up button returns. Now what?

What is there left to do? Close the pop-up; see what happens. Nothing happens: the original window appears unchanged. Hmm. I click the comment box and the pop-up pops up again. In a last ditch attempt I enter my email address once more – but apparently someone’s already using it:

So at this point I appear to have successfully created an account, but have no way to use it. I have received no emails to the registered address and am completely stumped. Is it broken, or am I missing something?