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Its about trust. Even on a site where anyone can contribute (like Wikipedia), the community still operate on assumptions of good faith. Wikipedia is also a interesting example in how aggressively the community feel about paid, puppet or other from of dishonest contributions. Without trust the community fall apart.

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The only effect it might have to slightly alter the overall bias of the site. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

HN already has something of a negative bias towards the work of the various security services (that is, the mood is largely pro-Snowden and anti-NSA) - having a better balance of views may well be a positive effect.

Similarly for the pro-capitalist bias here, and what almost amounts to a religious veneration for VCs and the very wealthy. Then again, HN is a bit of a chimera in the topics it covers. So we do have some diversity of interests and opinions.

That's exactly what someone who was paid by an agency to shift the bias of HN might say!~

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