What many people on HN consider common sense (e.g. Open ID, use complete sentences, use simple design for consumer sites) is not common sense to the general public (e.g. MOM, USE GMAIL INSTEAD OF HOTMAIL - CHRIST).
OpenID is a steaming pile, and I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with Hotmail -- I use Gmail personally, but if you're not a heavy email user, Hotmail is perfectly adequate (and integrates better with the rest of the MSN web properties).
What many people on HN consider common sense (e.g. Open ID, use complete sentences, use simple design for consumer sites) is not common sense to the general public (e.g. MOM, USE GMAIL INSTEAD OF HOTMAIL - CHRIST).