4 ms·
Ask HN: If HN is trust-based, why not remove the passwords?
I'm referring to PG's claim of this being a "... a community based on trust..." in thread about faking votes.
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?
- alecst 18y agoHere'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. 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?
- mannicken 18y agoOk, this was a joke, really :) >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?
- alecst 18y agoHit up a good pub, there'll be plenty of women and men there. 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.
- catch404 18y agoHaha, this actually sums up nicely what I was wanting to say. I'll add - Communities that have trust also have privacy, my friends don't need to know who I vote for or how much I make but thats no reason not to trust them.
- slackenerny 18y agoI think group is expanding lately also to include people who have nothing much to do with their 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.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- ErrantX 18y agoThere is a difference between trust and anarchy. 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. :)
- ErrantX 18y agoHaha you can tell this is hacker heaven... I automatically typed 2 == without even thinking aobut it :D