That's particularly true because HN threads usually have high search ranking. Anyone personally connected to a theme can easily get directed to an HN thread on that topic. That includes authors and project creators. It also includes family members of people being discussed.

There was a horrible case yesterday where someone died and the thread filled up with generic dross. People weren't being malicious. It's just what happens when internet commenters aren't familiar with the specifics of a topic (more about that at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22027453). But we ended up getting an anguished email from someone close to the person who had just died.

This is a systemic problem and I wish we knew what to do about it.