Is it worth any psychoanalysis? It's the internet.

Psychoanalysis? No

Threat analysis? Maybe

HN has value larger than for just for the community of people commenting here. It is also used as a platform for YC companies. YC Founders can even see each others usernames in orange color[1].

A spamming actor could also be testing the limits of the system now for a future attack. Anyway, this is the job an Infosec team usually deals with. Hopefully @dang / HN team has access to people with such skillset.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968246

  Threat analysis?

Fair enough.

It's probably as simple as 'Dan handles moderation and he's asleep'

It's had the opposite effect for me. He made me switch showdead back to true so I can be blissfully ignorant.

Could be symptom than disease. He's now including the word "pedo", and I don't think that is not a universally effective derogatory.