So we have Connection Client installed but still when picking communities.bentley or connect.bentley, we still have to log in. So the Connection Client really has nothing to do with Bentley support or discussions but only is a way to track license usage?
No, it was mentioned at the conclusion of a forum thread concerning this issue, but no separate announcement was made.
Was there any notification I missed about the change in October? Seems kind of important for the users to know.
Your memory is not misleading you. Our authentication system on Communities was changed in October 2017 to address sign in issues that automatically routed you to the home page instead of remaining on the page where you clicked the Sign In button. The behavior you are seeing is a side effect of this change. Once your screen name is showing on Communities, it will remain so for the remainder of the browser session, even if the tab with Communities is closed and reopened. This behavior is less than ideal and will remain on our backlog.
I have a similar question. When I go to the CONNECTION Center, then hit community forums or whatever it says, I could have swore it used to log me in to the community automatically. Now, it is semi-automatic as I have to click the silhouette icon in the upper right corner. It does behave as you described and log me in at that point without me having to type anything. Am I just remembering wrong or did this used to be totally automatic?
Are you accessing connect.bentley.com from the CONNECTION Client by either clicking the CONNECTION Center button or choosing CONNECTION Center from the contextual menu? If so, it should open in a web browser with you signed in. While in the same web session, open Bentley Communities (communities.bentley.com). It does not show your screen name initially, but if you click on Sign In, it should do so without prompting for your Bentley login again.