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Comment by kickscondor | Hacker News Reader

If you're curious why this run-of-the-mill PR piece is rising on HN, keep in mind that Microsoft (and other FAANG) posts like these are gamed by employees. https://www.kickscondor.com/satya-nadella-'reads''games'-hac...

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Whilst that doesn't read well, is that quote confirming that he's "gaming" HN? To me that could be read as "We're focusing on interacting with the community to answer questions, gain feedback, and address concerns."

I do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt though...

If Microsoft employees are 'working hard to make sure that Azure is growing in popularity' on HN - what do you think the chances are that they are not upvoting as part of that? (I don't know - perhaps they are secretly following some monkish creed to abstain from clicking on triangles...)

When I see one of my past employers mentioned on HN, I upvote if the post matches reality of working there. Cults die hard

Well there's a fine line between employees having a job duty as "participate in online forum" and straight up astroturfing.

Especially on sites like HN and reddit which are relatively easy to manipulate.

I don't know how comfortable I am with any company posting and promoting their own product/content. Even employees voting on posts seems like a potential conflict of interest to me.

Meh, I upvoted because I thought it was interesting reading about the differences and how MS has changed over the years.