Can you explain that further? Here's my logic: if you're in the comments on this thread, you're presumably interested in this topic, and would like to learn more about it -> Many HNers go to SXSW, and would get a chance to learn more, should my panel be accepted -> I'm not famous, so getting help from interested people is my only chance at getting a panel accepted.
Here's a stab: The culture here is such that comments are for the sake of the readers and not the writer. Some amount of self-promotion is fine, but too much is not appreciated.
Additonally, I've spent thousands of hours over the course of a decade obsessing over design details and historical context. Then, I spend a week crafting a blog post to condense a piece of my knowledge for sharing. I then ask for an opportunity to spend hundreds of hours preparing a presentation to share more of my knowledge. Somehow this is self-serving?
I don't need more (or more prestigious) clients. A SXSW badge is (relatively) inexpensive. I do all of this because I love to share knowledge. I understand what it's like to be turned off by shameless self-promotion, but sometimes a little perspective is called for.
It'd be hard to be more subtle when informing the readers that a) you've written the submitted article and b) you've got an upcoming event that might also be of interest to the readers.
Here's my logic: if you read the post, you already saw the plug (on the post).
Edit: that sounds snarky. It's not intended to be, but just an explanation of why I downvoted. I can appreciate your later comment, but when I made my reply to your original comment, yours was the only other comment in the submission. It seemed tacky.
I read the post and completely missed the plug on the post. The color and offset put it squarely in my internet blind spot after years of untargeted annoying internet ads. I was surprised when I looked again to verify and saw that I had looked past it twice.
