I wondered as well and I think they're just used to calling their contributor team members 'staff', like you needed to be voted in as a contributor then you are 'staff', apparently oftc does the same thing
hn is kind of notorious for having most of the people in a thread have pretty similar opinions, reddit is another one if you try criticizing anything about certain companies in the wrong channel there are going to be a bunch of people who will target your account with massive down votes so that the comment is removed
I've always found computer algebra systems a particularly fascinating niche in computing, implementations in accessible languages like Julia are really doing a service to enthusiasts and learners everywhere!