plonq | Plonq, where do you get the inspiration for your stories?

A co-worker approached me yesterday because he was having trouble remembering his password for an external service that we seldom access. He tried all of his usual passwords and none of them worked, so he finally tried the "click here if you've forgotten your password" option. The system sent him an email, which he printed out (all four lines of it!) and brought over to me.

"What's this?!"

The email read something like this:

"Dear subscriber,

You have received this email because you asked for help with your account password.

Here is your password reminder phrase:

Hope this helps."

"This," I said, handing the letter back to him, "is the password reminder phrase that you were supposed to enter along with your password."

"Well I don't want this. I want my password. What the heck is a password reminder phrase? How do I get my password?"

"The password reminder phrase is what it sends you when you forget your password. When you were creating your account it asked you to provide it with a phrase that would help you to remember your password if you ever lost it."

"It never asked me anything like that. I just want my password. How do I get my password?"

[Run back the clock a few months. I remember it clearly.]

"Can you help me over here for a second? Now it's saying something about a password reminder phrase. What the heck is that?"

"That's a phrase that they'll send to you if you ever forget your password. You should put something in there that will help you to remember it."

"This is stupid. Why would I fill this in? I'm not going to forget my password."

"You know, it wouldn't hurt, just in case..."

"F**king waste of time. I'm not going to forget my password."