<p><pre><code>  &#62; Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought
  &#62; your email was available on your profile page
  &#62; for anyone to read and extract.
</code></pre>
Yes it is.<p><pre><code>  &#62; So as far as I can see all this means is that
  &#62; someone is trawling HN profiles for email of
  &#62; likely startup employees and sending out email.
</code></pre>
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.<p>It's bulk email, sent to semi-automatically harvested email addresses, with no underlying research or targetting.<p><pre><code>  &#62; How is this different from posting your email
  &#62; on any web page anywhere on the Internet?
</code></pre>
Clearly it isn't.<p><pre><code>  &#62; And what is with all the drama about "via HN"?
</code></pre>
You seem to have a different concept of "drama" than I do, but I'll accept that.<p><pre><code>  &#62;&#62; Shame
  &#62; Are you asking the spammer to feel shame?
  &#62; Or are you surprised spammers trawled HN
  &#62; and suggesting HN readers (or moderators)
  &#62; feel shame?
</code></pre>
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.<p><pre><code>  &#62; (fwiw I got this message too. "Mark as spam". Done).
</code></pre>
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.<p>&#60;shrug&#62;  As someone else said - welcome to the internet.