[herbig]

I find it to be garbage self promotion when an article with little and/or poor content is submitted by the author and immediately gets 10+ upvotes without any comments, sending it straight to the front page.

In this case, straight to the front page despite many negative comments about the content.

If the article is not an Amazon link farm, it sure as hell reads exactly like one. So much so that my assumption is that the author intended to add in referral codes at a later date when reaching peak audience.

[bdcravens]

As author has since removed links, this should address your concern. Being wary of Amazon links is probably smart, but referring to something as "garbage" just makes you a jerk.

[herbig]

No no. My main concern is authors gaming HN to promote terrible content.