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Please stop.

I think when a moderator keeps intervening like this it really does mean that there's something wrong here. I think people would be less mad if you just went ahead and said that you have some kind of special arrangement here with this influencer and post publicly that you like them constantly spamming the site and letting their fans flood the place with deflection and appeals for donations to them. Even YouTube had to add a sponsored post disclaimer.

There's no special arrangement. The only issue is clarifying what content is welcome vs. unwelcome on HN. simonw's content is obviously welcome, and this ought to be obvious.

> I think people would be less mad

People aren't mad about this. The vast majority of this community values simonw's contributions, which are well within the sweet spot for material on HN. That's why his material gets upvoted, as minimaxir (no friend of astroturfers) has pointed out elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46451969.

Agreed. The preferential treatment is blatant and obvious.

The fact that an old-timer like yourself comes forward and says it means that the newer people aren't nutters thinking it.

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