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He’s done it again!

I don't believe "sparking" was the correct gerund for the OP to use, because indeed it sort of implies that it was intentional.

I'd word it simply:

- a spirited discussion

Yeah definitely meant spirited discussion. Not a native speaker.

It's also not clear how much it helps. I believe HN penalizes overly controversial posts, and it uses quantity/frequency of comments as a signal of controversy.

not his fault people seem to like a fight. It says more about human nature than it does about him.

Well, it certainly says something to profit off it.

I've posted a lot of threads here and you have no control over what people will find controversial or not. If you post a thread and it hits people's nerves it generally happens accidentally. And "profiting off it" is always going to happen if you're posting your own work. So in the end I don't really think it says anything.

this indeed.