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Comment by plinkplonk | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone else find this kind of "analysis" of a fellow HN member creepy?

I don't know if this is a cultural thing, (not a US citizen, the majority of HN's readership seems to be) but I found the whole blog post weird and highly distasteful. The author comes across as a borderline stalker/psychopath. From the blog comments.

"> You are making a number of strong assumptions about him from a few comments on HN. If you really wanted to help this would have worked better as a personal e-mail.

I went back and forth on that. In the end, I think doing it this way is going to produce the best outcomes – a couple of my popular posts have brought me a great amount of attention from cool people lately. "

This is just sick. He does a drive by creepy "analysis" of someone else so he could get "attention from cool people".

Shudder.

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> Does anyone else find this kind of "analysis" of a fellow HN member creepy?

Yep. If it were me I'd feel highly uncomfortable.

It seems to come with the territory though, the more visible you are the more stuff like this you can expect.

> I don't know if this is a cultural thing, (not a US citizen, the majority of HN's readership seems to be) but I found the whole blog post weird and highly distasteful. The author comes across as a borderline stalker. Slimy.

I think the post is actually with the best of intentions but completely fails in two important aspects:

  (1) I don't get the impression Patrick was asked if this was ok with him

  (2) It is a huge post based on a single line in a comment
      which talks about Patricks achievements to date, and
      talks about him as though that's going to be his lot
      in life.

Completely agree. I don't imagine anyone here would like to be analysed by a blogger to such degree, especially based on one of hand comment. The article reads like a hit piece and the sort of outing that caused _why to remove all of his projects and writings from the net. The fallacy the author committed was trying to compare apples and oranges to dollars and cents, comparing a salary amount to a life choice, comparing success to revenue.

Its not a cultural thing. I certainly found it creepy as well.

And I also agree that its a self-serving post. He basically boosted his own profile by tearing down a popular community member for linkbait and then injected himself into the conversation all over the place. And clearly the author has very little perception that what he's done here is in any way wrong, he's been defending and promoting it all over the place. Ugh

I find this really disturbing. This is part of the reason I don't use my real name as my username on HN (or anywhere else on the internet for that matter). Maybe I'm just more sensitive to privacy issues.

It's the kind of thing that led _why to abandon his public life.

It's weird, creepy, and disturbing.

An observation I feel comfortable making about another HNer? Sebastian Marshall clearly spends way too much time on this site.

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