Thank you for the explanation; that makes sense.<p>I confess that I am still confused why one would go and look up the appearance of an author before making a decision about whether their work is worthwhile (I believe neither of my links included a photo of the author, but <i>did</i> contain reviews). Outright discrimination on appearance has not been  a mark of the hacker community as I understand it, and I worry that people who endorse it are outsiders without the cultural norms of the hacker community. So while I now understand what the judgment on her appearance is, I am still a little baffled why any judgment on an author&#x27;s appearance is necessary.<p>I am also curious if anyone looked at <i>my</i> appearance (easily linked from my HN profile) before deciding whether to accept my endorsement of that book.