Well, originally, my point was slightly more broad... I'd intended to insinuate that, given that this particular startup had taken this demonstratedly flawed route, and that I can't really think of that many startups that don't use this sort of bullshit rhetoric and mentality to promote themselves, the criticism largely extends to startups in general. Capitalism, yes, I'd agree is probably beyond the scope of HN.
I certainly did. I started with HN when I was messed up and depressed and wanted to fill my mind with crap that was completely contrarian to everything I believe as a form of self-destruction.
Every once in a while there's something important that I get from HN, which is why I've kept coming back since starting to get better. Some time ago I decided it really wasn't worth it, and I haven't yet quit because I'm just on auto-pilot and come here when I'm bored. I'll get around to quitting soon though. Thanks for the reminder.
If anyone thinks serious academics will adopt something stupid and flashy like this in place of "old-fashioned, dry PDFs" when it isn't even free or publicly specified, they're seriously deluded.
It allows you to share your code with other people who share their code, but not people who don't. Afterall, why would you want to share your work with someone who doesn't share theirs?
It seems to me that the differential between those who know what a bookmarklet is and those who know that you can see everything in the settings menu is very small. So you're not talking about a huge effect here.