Oh wow, now the title has been changed again! Here are the different versions the title went through:
Never Use Google to Sign-In
Never Use Third Party Auth to Sign In
Don't use third party auth to sign in
I guess a another moderator had a better idea at what title will attract more attention.
Given the number of comments, the duration at the top of HN, it's clear that this post (including the title) hit a nerve with many people. But the moderators in their wisdom chose to reduce its reach by watering down the title; twice! Compare the 3 versions of the title so far, which one do you think resonates with most people? If they had chosen to add other prominent offenders' names (Facebook, Github, etc.) I wouldn't have minded a bit; that would have been a better use of the space the title takes up.
But they chose to first generalize it from "Google" to "Third Party Auth" (casual reader: eh, what's a third party auth; who are these people? what's auth? is it authentication, or is it authorization; I guess that's too generic post so I don't care, ), and then replaced "Never" with "Don't" and lower-cased the rest of it. I don't expect the general population of HN to take my, or anyone else's, advice at face value, but think about the problem in their own context, how much it affects them, how much they care about the problem, and if they agree with the proposed solution, and to what extent.
I'm sure that by watering down the title's efficacy, the moderators have lost opportunity to educate many of the HN readers.
People write content to share their ideas, and they want people to pay attention, because the writer thinks it's important. If the moderators' changes help in that goal, no writer would mind. But in this case I am sure these changes have hurt the chances of spreading the core concern.
I find it offensive that my judgement in choosing the title is being questioned, even though most of others agree that the original title was appropriate, in general. Thankfully, I went with my gut to write the article on my own Blog (and link it here) even though it was 3 short paragraphs, rather than post the original content here. The original title and content will stand there, without fear of someone else's ability to alter it.
Someone else's platform, their rules, their whims; no recourse, as with other platforms.
To self: Shut-up and get on with you life, you have already wasted inordinate amount of time on this.