Ask HN: Did Reddit Just Get Astroturfed? How Could Technology Tell Us?

In a surprisingly fortuitous turn of events, a profile of Julian Assange on OKCupid has been 'revealed' on Reddit, and breathlessly reported as true by Gawker, Business Week and others in very quick fashion. See: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ekgvz/behold_julian_assanges_profile_on_okcupid_last/

Each story frames the discovery as a grassroots effort at Reddit, reported in one story as an 'extensive team of quirky internet experts'.

The discussion for this particular story is surprisingly incredulity-light: a major upvoted post unpacks an 'investigative' backgrounder of Harry Harrison, with only a few downvoted posts exclaiming 'fake'. The usual 'investigative energy' of Reddit seems focused only on confirming what many in that community would be highly skeptical of.

A quick glance at the public profile purported to be of Assange contains such odd statements as an interest in 'white collar crime' and 'trickery', which seems to indicate some cheeky character assasination more than anything else.

I'm left with a sense the community there has been astro-turfed. Not an uncommon occurrence, but it has left me wondering how you could determine any irregularities in a community discussion like this?