Yes I hate them, so much that every time I realize a site uses one I stop and spend some time wondering if I really need to use that site. But 404 media has a compelling case for not wanting usernames/passwords which makes the magic link not a terrible idea for many.

I know that I might be in the minority with a password vault and good password hygiene. I have no repeated passwords. My security questions are random strings of text saved in my password vault. I use 2FA anytime I can. I’ve even got my wife to use all of these things as well as my 14-year-old kid.

What all that overlooks though is that for most sites I have a magic link as well. It’s called “I forgot my password” and sends an email to my email to let me reset my password. If that’s the lowest common option on all sites then as soon as someone gets control of my email they have any account they want via the password reset path.

I still hate magic links as they take me out of my browser into email back to my browser instead of using my autofilled password, but I guess I’ll live with them.