I love those kind of coincidences.

For the record, I wasn’t directly referring to that technique as I think those can actually help depending on the context of them. I’m all for linking articles that are actually relevant to the conversation. Where it feels spammy is pretty much what I said above: the comment is more flattery than a compliment, the comment generally doesn’t contribute much of anything to the discussion, followed up by a shameless plug (even if they say “I don’t mean to pitch”, it’s still a shameless plug.).

Either way I’m glad that this piece was able to help you out and getting some perspective on the whole thing!