"Huge publicity"... but it's already publicly advertised in many places, many big names are blogging/twittering about it, did you really expect everyone to ignore it? If it's got such a good feel to it, why can't everyone else get in on that?
So far all I've seen is elitism, both in comments I'm reading and the replies to my own (first) comment.
Hackers aren't supposed to like elitism. We're supposed to promote the sharing of knowledge, information, freely and openly, you know... because that's how the world should be. Or so we say. But I haven't seen that here. I've seen the typical elitist social community, with the people who've been here "longer" running the show aside from the admin.
Decided to end my thought there, it was running a little long...
How did I know you'd pull that card instead of just letting it go? It's so easy to pull that card, isn't it? Long time reader, first time poster. Please don't judge a book by it's hour-old cover.
Honestly, what have you lost? Nothing. The truth is that you shouldn't be trusting a bunch of people you've never met ANYWAY. Nobody's asking you to give them your address or mother's maiden name, but you wouldn't give those out if asked by a fellow member anyway. You should always be wary of sites asking for your information for whatever reason, and just because you trust some of the people on HN doesn't mean there aren't tons more on here that could possibly deceive you.
People seem to react to this like like the record companies reacted to Napster. "OH NO! IT'LL KILL US ALL! Screw changing our ancient business model, we'll just SUE 'EM!"
Instead of updating the way you think about HN (and other sites) you choose to put down the person who enlightened you and cast him out as some sort of heretic.
Hackers INVENT, hackers BREAK STUFF, and hackers BRING OUT THE UGLY! Why is Xach getting martyred for being a real hacker?
Besides, he's giving HN huge publicity. Jeff Atwood twittered about this thread.
Decided to end my thought there, it was running a little long...