It's not obvious to an outsider that "Hacker News" is Paul Graham's playground and that he is the one "you are having a problem with". As an outsider, I would have assumed as the poster did, that the community would be supportive in resolving what seems to be a reputation issue. But it's not plain that it's a reputation issue, as it seems (to me) that HN-based reputation doesn't map to relationships the same way it does in Real Life; the written rules are not all of the rules.<p>I do believe that you should be careful about asking stupid questions in public. But I don't think this was unexpected.