Ok so this just gets weirder. After making some posts here (as markosjal) I realized that I was posting as one of the very accounts that I had been unable to log into (gmail login), and not the new account (email and password) .
Unfortunately I can not reproduce logging in to that account as I signed out to see if it would work again. Then I find I am still logged in with the NEW account that I made with email address and password HUH?
? This made no sense to me.
I am beginning to suspect that somehow this is because I have multiple Gmail accounts, and often I am logged into a few of them simultaneously. All of my obi devices are on a single gmail account. Nether of these accounts I have posted from today is the account I want to use, and that has the devices in the obitalk portal.. The username and password login on the obitalk portal must have triggered something saying that I was "logged in" that is not getting triggered by a gmail login. furthermore I was not signed into the obitalk portal with a gmail account at all but posted in forums from a gmail login
I guess Poly has no desire to fix it.