I think the point that it was a she and not he is particularly important. I also think the point that the original commenter missed this point is particularly important. Knowing the HN community, that is the reason why the comment got voted up.
Why? I don't see why it should be relevant at all!
(I am aware that singular 'they' is grammatical. Doesn't stop it from sounding really awkward when the referent is a specific individual.)
I'm not offended by people incorrectly using gender pronouns, it is just really awkward to write something without knowing the gender of the person you are talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Historic...
In particular:
>The singular "they" is widely used and accepted in Britain, Australia, and North America in conversation and, often, in at least informal writing as well. It is important to note that this is not recognized by the SATs and other standardized tests.
I do boggle that "they" isn't technically acceptable for cases where gender isn't known, though. "He/she" seems like insanity, both in writing and in speaking, when "they" sits there waiting to be used. It's extremely rare that context isn't sufficient to determine if it's plural or not. Heck, Japanese essentially does without plurals entirely, and that's a functioning language.