I don't understand why this is a feature and what it brings other than shout "you are being watched by random others". Exited the site before ending the first block.

Sorry - I've been playing with WebRTC and Trystero (https://trystero.dev/) and added it to my blog as an experiment. Of course didn't expect my blog to become a bit popular on HN and for the cursors to be super annoying. Turned them off by default!

The ancients brought us "reading mode" in browsers as an escape hatch for exactly this kind of cruelty

Exactly. I was interested in the article but I don't have time for that nonsense.

All it is missing now is a chat and a friend/follow feature.....

There's a "hide" button in the top right corner

Nobody knows what it means, but it's provocative. It gets the people going