these are exciting new goalposts you’ve decided on! i, too, think that any article that is different from how i would’ve written it is a listicle.
if you’ll indulge me, i’m excited to hear how you have “categorically” decided the author’s intentions
one nit: surely you, of all hacker news commenters, have the extraordinary media literacy to know that the journos themselves do not add the affiliate links or pocket the affiliate link search arbitrage
I can recognize behaviors, just like everybody else. Columnists don't add affiliate parameters but they're incentivized or required to place the base links there by the publication they work for. Would you prefer that I clap like a seal at every punkwashed mainstream opinion piece? I'd rather not.