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Comment by thekevan | Hacker News Reader

Imagine if the local news outlet did a "consumer watchdog" piece on a contractor going around installing windows or doors in homes and businesses with locks that can be easily opened without a key. Then imagine the contractor acknowledged the issue but threatened to sue the news outlet for hurting their business.

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Now imagine that the local news outlet displayed a list of addresses of the homes than can be easily opened without a key. That's closer to what happened here. The disclosure was irresponsible. He could have contacted each site owner individually with information limited to their site. Instead, he sent a mass email to total strangers, putting some of them at risk, then blogged about it. That's stupid and inconsiderate.

No, he notified 11 of the vulnerable parties and failed to blind CC them.

And now, realizing the danger they are in, they fix the door or harass their vendor into doing it. Finally, thanks to the efforts of one good samaritan, they're safe.

Who each have to go through the contractor to get them fixed resulting in a bottleneck. Thieves are already running rampant at the disclosure while the contractor is frantically fixing the windows.

An unfortunate series of events, but the poor homeowners are glad it happened, because now they see their contractor for the careless, incompetent fool that he is.

They vow never again to put their families at risk by letting him near their house.

They find a better contractor.

Having no technical expertise with which to evaluate competing contractors, the "better" contractor they find has the same problem. Cycle repeats.

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