> it's a weird habit on HN to refer to random rumours that have discouraged you from trying something, and then explicitly not link to even the source of the random thing you're thinking of.

I don't know about you, but I don't keep a map of "random thought" to "url" anywhere. It seems totally fine/normal in a discussion forum to say "Hey i heard this thing, any substantiation to it?" without needing a source.