[Someone1234]

The second most popular top level comment chain is:

> Unless I can back it up and import it into a new device from a competitor, then there is no way I am going to use this unless forced. I do not trust one company anymore.

Which is the same sentiment as this thread. The first comment was just talking about the open standard of Apple's implementation and weakness of 2FA loss/recovery.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31644190

[throw10920]

Yup - GP made the mistake of treating HN as a single person with a coherent opinion. It's not, and it's extremely tiring and intellectually uninteresting to repeatedly see people doing that.

[glenstein]

I agree, but with the following caveat. Sometimes hot takes inspire reflexive reactions from the crowd, reactions that aren't coming from a place of deeply well thought out reasons.

So if you get a mob of people all reacting the same way to something, who, upon examination, have arrived at their conclusion for a smattering of contradictory and inconsistent reasons, it can be a helpful point of information for diagnosing the irrational mob response.

Granted it's not always the case, people get to similar beliefs through different reasons.

But these are two phenomena that exist side by side and there are times when it's necessary and helpful to be able to diagnose the first.

[woojoo666]

Your GP did not treat HN as a single person, they are simply pointing out population trends. And these trends are important when analyzing the dynamics of a democratic (upvote-based) content platform

[webmobdev]

HN is not really a pure "democratic (upvote-based)" system as moderators can (and do) "interfere" in the process - they can remove comments or bring a low ranking comment to the top of the discussion if they feel that a discussion on that might be more interesting for the HN crowd.

[pastage]

No. While I have tried to counter these group think posts you talk about, I only find them interesting because I think it is human nature to do it. I know I do it all the time.

[Ferret7446]

I find that sentiment ironic because I won't use it unless it can't be backed up (the main selling point of 2FA and hardware keys).

If it can be backed up, then a casual bystander/process can also "back up", filch all of your credentials in a few moments with you being none the wiser.

The protocol is open, so I can use one proprietary key from company A, one from company B, and a few open source keys. Keep one for regular use and the rest as backups.

[notyourday]

> I do not trust one company anymore.

Especially when that company is Google.

[chlorion]

Yeah Google is more evil than all of those other totally non-evil companies that act in your best interests at all times. It's not like other companies have the same incentive to profit from you!

You believing $company is not as bad as Google definitely has nothing to do with marketing!