Two-factor sign-in

A password can be guessed, reused somewhere that was breached, or typed into a convincing copy of this site. Two-factor sign-in means none of that is enough on its own.

Turn it on in Settings → Two-factor.

What you need Copy a link to this section

An authenticator app on your phone — any of them. Easybie shows a square to scan, the app starts producing a six-digit code that changes every thirty seconds, and you type the current one to prove the setup worked.

No phone number is involved. Easybie does not send codes by text message and never will: a text can be intercepted by anybody who can persuade a phone company to move your number, which happens more often than people think.

The eight recovery codes Copy a link to this section

When you turn it on you are shown eight codes, once. That is the only moment they exist in a readable form — afterwards Easybie keeps only a scrambled version and cannot tell you what they were.

Each one works exactly once, in place of a code from your app.

Put them somewhere that is not your phone. The situation they exist for is the one where your phone is gone.

If you lose both Copy a link to this section

Then you are locked out, and that is the honest answer. Easybie cannot verify who you are by email alone — if it could, anybody with access to your email could take the account, which would make the whole thing pointless.

Moderators Copy a link to this section

If you hold a moderator account, two-factor is not optional. The moderation screens redirect to the settings page until it is on.

That is not distrust. A moderator account can read things ordinary accounts cannot, and an account like that being taken is a much larger event than an ordinary one being taken.