As the author notes, the fact that he finally did get a bunch of upvotes sort of proves that his posting wasn't spam to begin with. It was relevant to the community. What it shows more than anything else is that the system for achieving the coveted front page status is broken. I'm not sure what a good solution would be though.

While I can see the argument in that direction, the point he made was to "delete" the other post before reposting. Think of it like first drafts of a story/article/blog post you're writing, you almost NEVER get it right the first time. Sometimes it takes a few iterations (just like software development hmmm?) before you find the right combination to trigger a general interest.

HN, Reddit, Slashdot, all of these share similar requirements of "finding the right combo of post/title/content/etc... to appease to the wider audience".

What he recommends, I think is a worthwhile endeavor. As long as it is not abused...

the post got 112 upvotes yesterday and stayed on the front page all day. that many upvotes is an indicator of relevant content, not spam.

It's not a gray area.