[nsantos]

HN is not like Twitter in that, here, you're generally expected to actually know what you're doing/what's going on. The problem with this "experiment" is that it was (and still is) disruptive to the intended use of HN ("[gratifying] one's intellectual curiousity").

Also, I don't think the regulars would've jumped on 10smom the way they have if it were obviously a newbie mistake. Personally, what galls (enough to pull me out of lurk-mode) is how this could probably have gone away early on if 10smom actually tried to make amends. Instead, additional comments were posted that point to someone who was aware that what she was doing pretty much amounts to gaming HN's karma system.