I don't think you were really trying to spam anyone, but your plug came off as such, to me, because: a) HN has been inundated with iPad blog posts and we've already heard opinions of all angles, so it's safe to say your post wouldn't have made any points not already made, b) Your post is somewhat irrelevant because although this submission is about the iPad, it's not about whether it's revolutionary or not, and so it seems like you were trying to shoehorn your plug in here, c) You plugged your blog by linking to the HN submission when you should've just linked directly to your blog post, and d) You admitted you desperately needed readers, which was probably meant to be taken in jest, but others might think you were being serious. HN humor is pretty hard to gauge sometimes.