[rprasad]

I've worked with plenty of otherwise competent people who could spend 5-10 minutes trying to find a website link or form submit button that was right in front of them.

Peggy provides better, faster feedback than a "forgot password" link does for the vast majority of the population. Not everyone knows their way around a computer; the HN crowd is definitely not representative in this respect. But plenty of people, especially in older generations, know how to use a phone and talk to someone.

Think of Peggy as a UX hack: she makes non-technical employees more efficient by cutting down by 75-80% the amount of time such people would spend trying to reset their password (using the "forgot password link" method). Alternatively, think of her as internal customer service. Either way, she actually does/did provide value to the organization if the organization was large enough that she could spend essentially all of her workday resetting passwords for people.

[emiliobumachar]

O guess there is room for both Peggy and the link, because I would rather deal with a computer than a stranger for password reset.