"a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society."
the people who downranked my comments, were indeed elites, because they're a select group of privileged users with the ability to downrank
millions visit HackerNews every day
when those people see Fig ad here, first thing they do is check what the people are saying about it in the comment section
now, imagine that instead of real feedback, you're mostly seeing cherry-picked comments praising the product
it certainly shapes your opinion of the product and makes you more likely to try