Lame Online Password Logic

I’m getting so tired of sites that don’t allow for the use of long, complex passwords. Actually, to put a point on it, it’s the sites that let me put in the long, complex password, but then don’t let me log in with it.

That really irks me. If the password’s so f%@&*)! horrible, why’d you let me enter it with no warning?

Why not tell me up front if the password is possibly too long (if the maximum length is reached, display a warning that says anything over that will be ignored)? How about telling me I can’t use special characters? I have been to dozens of sites that let me create my account with a 16 character, upper and lower case, special-character having password — and then proceed to not let me login using it.

Lame. Just lame. I think all sites that do this should be required to show a logo next to their username and password fields. It could be a big orange "G" – for "gimpy", or "M" for "mouthbreather". Either way, it’ll say to the user of the resource that they should be sure to enter something short, simple, and easy to guess for a password — since that’s their standard.