You are right, should of maybe included "if so". But still, surprising someone would think covering up SEO shitlording with such a thin veil would fool anybody. From the other comments here, it seems that the reason SEO is just generally negative in 90% of its aspects, has been forgotten. People have a short memory these days, and I'm sure that if people on HN have forgotten, then it won't be long until we have link spam, algo spam, cramming, bots, trackers, and the whole SEO shitlord shitlist back on the table.

Apologies for my French. It's just that HN is a lot smarter than this...