[gherig4]

This is a blatant advertisement

[veli_joza]

It's a quick side project that might be useful to some, presented in quirky and humorous way. Why does it bother you?

[gherig4]

It is a way to collect phone numbers disguised as an outlet for passive aggression.

[coldtea]

And your point is? Advertisements can still be useful to discuss. And commercial products and services are featured on HN all the time.

Plus, it's not like HN is anti-commercial either.

[bigbugbag]

This is a blatant advertisement for a way to collect phone numbers. I'm not sure breaching privacy and social engineering scheme are welcome or else HN would be filled with malwares and the likes.

[coldtea]

>This is a blatant advertisement for a way to collect phone numbers.

Not anymore than any other service that to work asks for phone numbers or email addresses.

You might not appreciate or have a use for the service, which is tongue in cheek, but that doesn't make it "malware" or "social engineering".

[tyre]

This isn't an advertisement, it is a marketing program. they aren't advertising Breather itself, just a side-project.

As for HN and marketing programs, you may notice that Hacker News is run by Y Combinator. YC has a considerable interest in owning the news platform for startups and engineers. This is not a coincidence.