> Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought
> your email was available on your profile page
> for anyone to read and extract.
Yes it is.
> So as far as I can see all this means is that
> someone is trawling HN profiles for email of
> likely startup employees and sending out email.
Almost. They are trawling HN profiles for emails of anyone on HN. Even a tiny amount of research would show that I'm not the sort of person they want, I'm not in a location that's likely to be of assistance, and I don't have the skills they're looking for.
It's bulk email, sent to semi-automatically harvested email addresses, with no underlying research or targetting.
> How is this different from posting your email
> on any web page anywhere on the Internet?
Clearly it isn't.
> And what is with all the drama about "via HN"?
You seem to have a different concept of "drama" than I do, but I'll accept that.
>> Shame
> Are you asking the spammer to feel shame?
> Or are you surprised spammers trawled HN
> and suggesting HN readers (or moderators)
> feel shame?
No, I think it's a shame that I've got spam through this source. I am saddened - not really sure why. I guess I've come to think of HN as different from "other forums." That impression is being eroded, bit by bit.
> (fwiw I got this message too. "Mark as spam". Done).
Good for you. Sadly, this is so close to other emails I get that are relevant to consultancy work I do that my spam filtering didn't catch it. Indeed, I'm not using it to train my spam filters because it is so close.
As someone else said - welcome to the internet.