I have been in HN since many of the current users could even type on a keyboard, and allow me to chip in.
* They have the right to block by referral
* HN has the right to set up that attribute to the links
* I don't think they are arguing about HN doing it, but to do it silently or covertly by someone in the moderation staff
I wont argue about legality or morals. It looks like they have an issue with the current dynamics of comments in here, and it's an honest way of protesting about it.
If the moderation staff does edit the link, title or attributes it should be reflected at least. Like when they add a date to specify that it's from a few years ago.
Of course, HN users could always choose to protest by protesting and sharing and discussing about the articles anyway. But that doesn't make their point any less valid.
I know you're anon trolling, but the authors' names are:
Chitwan Saharia, William Chan, Saurabh Saxena†, Lala Li†, Jay Whang†, Emily Denton, Seyed Kamyar Seyed Ghasemipour, Burcu Karagol Ayan, S. Sara Mahdavi, Rapha Gontijo Lopes, Tim Salimans, Jonathan Ho†, David Fleet†, Mohammad Norouzi
> The Mac App Store gives a hint at what would happen if there was any choice.
There's a choice of app store in Android and almost nobody uses Amazon App Store, F-Droid, Samsung App Store and so on. It's great that they can exist, but I don't think the Mac App Store (which has been neglected since day 1) offers any guidance.
People mostly use what they know or are giving by default. In desktop, be it Windows, Linux or macOS, people aren't used to app stores.
I very much can imagine a future documentary in a few years. With the host asking the audience: "Where were the signs?"