I have this terrible feeling I’m going to find the screamingly obvious answer to this 5 minutes after I post, but…
The vBulletin FAQ mentions a “log out” link which deletes all SDMB-set cookies, so that (for example) the entire world can’t impersonate you if you happen to log on from some public place (like a library computer). The problem is, I don’t see it. All I see is a “Log In” button–I tried clicking it while I’m already logged on, but it just says “wrong password”. Clicking the “Register” icon just gets you the “Our records show that you have already registered at this board under the name of…” message, which makes me feel vaguely furtive and guilty (“I’m not trying to create a sock puppet! I swear!”), and still gives no way to log out. Obviously, you could just manually delete the cookies, but at a public computer that might not be an option, since (understandably) such computers are often set up so that you can’t access any functions but the web browser.
It seems to log you out whenever you reboot the computer.
“Log out” is a link right at the bottom right-hand corner of the main page. I see it right now.
Not when I do it. I haven’t had to re-log into the SDMB for months, and I reboot a couple times a day.
It’ll log out when you reboot if it’s not set to receive cookies.
Oh, okay. I had to change my profile to “remember your userid and password”, which for some reason it wasn’t. Now I see the “log out” link.
It doesn’t log me out when I reboot the computer either.
The trick is that the Log Out button only appears on the main board menu page, which some people don’t bother with, and it also only appears after you’ve logged in, so you won’t see it there the first time.
Here’s the link ** http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?action=clearcookies **
I was just gonna post that I seem to need to log in every time I reboot, but then I noticed that I am logged in, and I just rebooted my computer. Oh well. Sometimes when I reboot it logs me out.