This reminds me of a recently declassified document from the CIA that discusses how to undermine organizations by being poor managers, employees, etc. It's difficult to search HN for this at this point because A) we always discuss that agency and B) our best search option gives us the option of the past month or the past year. Maybe someone has this bookmarked or downloaded. It came in PDF form.

This is happening to us here. I think they're doing it by using the "No true Scotsman" informal fallacy and other methods. We'd blame the hundreds of thousands of new users. I believe they've found a way to unwind this community. Nothing revolutionary will ever come from here (how could it?). I think the community has been compromised and that we won't find out until 50 years from now when most of us are dead.

This is how I feel after years of watching the community. I have no stake in it either way. I'm open to opposing views.

Thanks vermontdevil for finding the link. If in 1944 they had a field manual for subverting physical organizations, it's foolhardy to believe they don't have a field manual for subverting "online communities with up and down arrows."