This is more of a witty and a bit assholish remark than anything else but how much trust exactly there is, and why trust with one thing (like hacking into the site) but not trust each other enough to not use passwords?
Oh wait, I think my comment may have been a little witty and assholish. Oops.
Maybe it's because your post entails that we should have to publicly disclose our passwords to members that aren't even part of HN, who may or may not be trustworthy. Maybe people have passwords they use universally. Maybe if you would have thought your Ask HN post through a little more, you would have realized how utterly inane it was.
I don't like to be mean, especially here. But what was the purpose of posting this? It would have been just fine as a comment. And furthermore, if you understood that your remark was "assholish" (your words), why did you bother to post it in the first place?
>Here's what I want you to do: 1. find the person you trust most, then 2. send them a document containing all of your sensitive personal data, i.e. your social security number, bank statements, bills, receipts, etc. Then call them and tell them how many people you've slept with last month. Do this because you trust this person.
My mother knows my SSN, has many of my bank statements, bills, receipts, she probably even knows pin to my credit cards.
I just told her (in person) that I slept with 0 women and 0 men last month. What next?
Your post may have been a joke, but I don't feel like you were justified creating a new thread. Just comment/reply next time.
While I agree with what PG said in this particular case, I think it should nevertheless be silently patched just in anticipation of further grow, which is inevitable, at the very least due to layoffs and which is also bound to include bored, occasionally malcious, people. And certainly Zach is none of such. Attitude should change.
Without the passwords there is no trust. With accounts and account passwords you assume that one account == one person. That is the trust we put into the community.
Having no passwords does not mean extra trust: it just means we would have to trust what people post less because there is now a higher chance that it is not them. :)