> I feel like my paranoia is going to ruin the shreds of authenticity that underpinned real engagement on this site.

That’s a you problem.

You can either tell or you can’t. I don’t know what to say other than some people have this way of thinking intrinsic and some do not. I’m not sure it can be trained. The moderators of HN do appear to have it, Dan certainly does: I’ve had a few direct interactions with him. Tom I don’t know, never interacted with them.