The author seems to be under the impression that 200 visits from a link he posted to Hacker News automatically means "people were discussing my article and enga

The author seems to be under the impression that 200 visits from a link he posted to Hacker News automatically means "people were discussing my article and engaging", and there was a "lively discussion" about it. Discussion about a posted story is not a given, even if you get many visits from the site. Personally, I've often visited the posted links, and not been bothered to up-vote the story, let alone comment. And I've often seen stories on the front page with many up votes and no comments. I think the OP is jumping to conclusions when he says that "Hacker News had buried my submission, precisely because it was getting rapid traction." That's a pretty strong accusation. I didn't read the post the author is referring to, but I think it's more likely that the post was just not that interesting to Hacker News readers.