[dang]

There are a lot of users who come to HN just to submit their own stuff, aren't participating in the community, but don't realize that they're breaking any norms either. We tend not to treat them as spammers unless they really overdo it. Often we explain to them that (a) using HN just for promotion is something the community doesn't like, and which we eventually penalize or even ban accounts for; (b) if they want to post to HN it would be better to fully join the community and submit a variety of things they personally find intellectually interesting, and (c) if they do that, it's fine to occasionally include their own stuff.

Most people respond to that explanation pretty well and HN has even gained a few excellent submitters that way. So we've learned to treat this class of users with a lighter touch than outright spammers, who mostly leave quite different fingerprints.

(p.s. thanks for the kind words!)