I'm not the OP, but it bothered me too. It goes against HN's general discussion style.
What? The use of terminology specific to social media?
1 - HN is social media.
2 - 'OP' is a term as associated with social media of a certain nature as the use of '#'
It 'clearly' states this: It makes me fall in love with Apple more. #Respect
No quotes. He/She was using it seriously.
Same with retweets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag#Origin_and_Use
I'm not the OP, but it bothered me too. It goes against HN's general discussion style.