I've never been able to get HN's OpenID login to work -- it used to work at some point, but when I log in, I just get the error message:

"Bad OpenID login."

If I log in to ClickPass first, it sends me to a screen where I can enter my HN username/password -- but when I fill out that form, I'm taken to < http://news.ycombinator.com/openid_merge >, which just says "Unknown."

From this experience, I assume the OpenID support in HN is more of an afterthought than a real implementation.

At the risk of similarly being voted down, I'm experiencing the same error. Trying to associate an OpenID with my HN account results in a return of "Unknown" from the openid_merge link.

My vanity Google OpenID never works anywhere but my domain and MyOpenID works with HN fine.

I stand corrected, it does look like you can log in via openid.

However, I attempted to log in via google, and I was taken to this site called clickpass.com, which then asked for access to my google contacts. No thank you...

Is HN using some sort of 3rd party to accomplish openid logins with google? If so, why? It's very easy to implement google openid logins.

Clickpass is a YC startup. If you don't want to use it click on the down arrow to the right of the button and enter http://www.google.com/profile/{your username}

That's all fine and good. Why do they need access to my google contacts?

I don't know. You should ask them.

Just verifying what you said: My account authenticates with OpenID.