alt Hacker NewsMercurial was safer and better. I still use it and it's still safer.
The bookmarks feature which is supposed to be the solution for short-lived branches is hard to understand though. I'm probably dumb but I can't work it out and hence the overall tool is that much less useful.
It needs a github-like website and Heptapod would be great if I could use it - I've set up a project, been unable to do anything and then had it all closed down. OTOH self-hosting is a lot more feasible nowadays with today's fibre connections.
I hated so much how Mercurial dealt with short-lived branches, that after seeing how Git did it, I've never looked back. I also remember how some people told me to use the quilt or something extension to manage patches, but it was too complicated for me.