agreed. i don't view people like him as competition at all, as their and my interests in the dating pool are nearly completely disjunct.

that said, no one ever asked for anyone's "judgements" ever-- not here, nor anywhere else. but yet they have this shiny "comment" button, and i guess i just can't help myself... welcome to an online forum, where people share judgments (among other things).

Well, by posting on HN I suspect he's seeking more social currency via upvotes. That is judgment in a sense.

EDIT: Forgot 'posting'

I'm glad the culture of Instagram has finally trickled up into HN

Would you say the same thing if a spammer posted here saying how they managed to make money off of email spam?

Even in that context it would be a weird comment: "I worry about what kind of people would fall for such spam, probably stupid attracts stupid"

It is an insult-like judgment coming from moral highness, both of the posters and of the women mentioned.

As an example, in both cases a comment like "this is a disgusting toxic way to use the platform" would have been less of an unwarranted insult that still communicates strong feelings.

Yes, I agree with that. I just found it odd that people jumped to defend the guy that clearly was doing something pretty unsavory, especially when the line of defense was "well it works for him" - spam and dark patterns also work, otherwise people wouldn't use them.

whats unsavory about sending messages from a popular profile and people finding that attention intriguing and less likely to ignore?

not "earning" the popularity the way anyone imagined? every form of valuable popularity requires capital and external help. it has the same affect with the populous. sycophants with romantic interest are predictable.

It's dishonest. You know you're not selling what they think they are buying.

Can you elaborate on what exactly you think is happening here?