I'm not confused, and I don't expect them to have any desire for traffic. That's why I link to it even though there's more than a few people who believe it hurt

I'm not confused, and I don't expect them to have any desire for traffic. That's why I link to it even though there's more than a few people who believe it hurts the way my posts are ranked. They do their thing without giving a damn what I do, and I do my thing without giving a damn what they do. If they really don't want people linking to HN discussions, they'll ask people not to do that. They aren't shy about asking people not to flood the new queue, for example. If they're penalizing the votes or comments of people who come through direct links, well, that's their business and I presume they know what they're doing. I'm a writer, not a SEO consultant.