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So far I've started using Super User, Stack Overflow, Ask Ubuntu and Photography on the Stack Exchange network. Every time I log into one of them (with Google ID) and go to another one of these four sites, I automatically get a message on the top of the page saying I'm already logged in so all I need is to refresh the page and that's it. However, when I want to log out it's a whole different story. I have to enter each site and log out separately. Nothing seems to do it; I've tried going to stackexchange.com but logging out from there only logs me out of -you guessed it- stackexchange.com. Is there a way to do it?

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Nice catch! It does the same for me. I wonder if this is a bug... And for the record, I'm using Google as well for my login. – sidran32 Feb 8 at 19:58
Same for me using OpenID – Raystafarian Feb 8 at 20:21
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On a separate note, logging out of StackOverflow seemed to have me logged out of SuperUser chat room. Means the chat rooms are logged out across sites. – Bibhas Feb 8 at 20:30
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I've been frustrated by this problem for a long time, and maintain that Jeff's response to that MSO thread is inadequate. Supposedly it's since been fixed but from my testing it doesn't actually log you out of everywhere. – nhinkle♦ Feb 8 at 21:15
It does, if you use Stack Exchange as the OpenID which you & @nhinkle don't seem to be using – Sathya♦ Feb 9 at 2:57
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@Sathya that's silly - it shouldn't matter what OpenID provider you're using. – nhinkle♦ Feb 9 at 3:06
@nhinkle It believe it does, because you aren't logging out of the openID provider, just the site(ie stackexchange sites). When you visit the site back again, the auto login kicks in & you're back. (note: My understanding, take it with a pinch of salt if must) – Sathya♦ Feb 9 at 3:15
No - it doesn't query your OpenID provider every time it loads the page. Once you authenticate through your OpenID provider, the rest of everything authentication-related is between your browser and SE. – nhinkle♦ Feb 9 at 3:37
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2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

An alternative answer: use a different browser profile. This is less impractical than it sounds: profiles are quick to create. This answer gives the relevant firefox command invocation:

how to fix firefox command line arguments launched by the start menu's search box?

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Ok, now this is helpful, not like your previous answer which nevertheless was +1'd by myself as well... – the.midget Feb 8 at 22:23
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@the.midget try not to insult users answers, he did out effort into it – Simon Sheehan Feb 9 at 3:02
@simon-sheehan Ok, Simon, you're right; however, I did not insult his answer, I simply said it wasn't helpful. Won't do it again anyway. – the.midget Feb 9 at 3:12
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up vote 2 down vote

Ideally stackexchange websites would provide a logout button that worked, of course.

However: if you close all tabs visiting stackexchange websites, and all tabs visiting relevant authentication websites (e.g. myopenid, google websites), and then delete all the relevant persistent browser state, that will do it reliably.

Relevant state consists of cookies, and HTML 5 local storage (stackauth.com). There are other types of other persistent state also (notably flash local storage), but I don't think stackexchange uses that other state. Most browsers have a search box somewhere into which you can type "stack" and see all the relevant state and quickly delete it.

There are likely extensions for your browser that will do that for you with fewer clicks.

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I already know one can log out from sites by deleting the cache. How do you think I log out of Facebook, Twitter, Google and Livemocha when I'm using a public computer? The thing is, in my own personal computer I don't want to erase the history every time just to save a few seconds. There should be an easier, faster way. – the.midget Feb 8 at 22:21
@the.midget If this is your personal computer, I see no need to logoff. – kinokijuf Feb 12 at 18:44
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