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Comment by AbrahamParangi | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

They're specifically referring to the dead comments from new users in this thread, so it's not insinuation. They're pointing out a higher-than-normal quantity of shill bots flocked to this thread.

The fact that the comments are dead means the system is working as intended, but it's not unreasonable to point out the nature of the comments.

That seems shockingly naive.

The mistake is thinking that an organic entity won't reject causality when it interferes with their politics.

The interesting thing here is that this isn't an always-on feature. You can actually see the process on a person's face. I was delighted by the recent DOGE depositions because the video quality is good enough to see the guy's eyes stop moving and glaze over.

Can you be more specific? I see a lot of uninformed takes, but no specific bias. Do you mean downvotes?

If you turn on the thing that shows 'dead' comments, there is a larger than normal number here.

Indeed, and the dead comments (from new users!) overwhelmingly favor the government position.

But, this is a non-story, because those comments were correctly killed precisely so they wouldn't clog up this thread.

Do you think it's more likely a government influence operation, or a single dipshit lazily pasting LLM slop?

Could be organic dipshits with little to offer the discussion. That's the most common case in my view.

Said dipshits tend have an unnecessarily high degree of self regard.

I wouldn't call something a non-story just because the ultimate end-goal was mitigated. The fact that it was attempted is a story, especially when it's a meta commentary on story about trying the same thing _officially_.

Eh. The actors that use these features use a shotgun approach. The result is you see a bunch of dead comments and assume the system is working as intended, while a couple of the less inconspicuous comments persist. This happens frequently on specific topics.

Are you suggesting there is a government conspiracy to influence this dusty corner dive bar of the Internet?

Are there tech workers who don't know what HN is? It's a pretty reasonably sized social media site.

I'm reminded of that episode of Portlandia where the mayor was obsessed with thinking the city was bigger and more important than it actually is.

I don't think I overstated it. Tech workers is a small piece of the global population.

Portland OR has a higher GDP than Vancouver BC.

Sadly, Portland is a backwater logging outpost and no one outside the PNW gives a shit about Portland or could place it on a map. I'm sorry, it's true.

That's how I feel about Dallas, Pittsburgh, Tallahassee, etc. I think we're all just not as familiar with regions outside our own.

I had no idea what hn was until about 2 years ago. This would be 8 years into a career in tech… there are dozens of us.

At my previous job at a well known, established large tech company - I didn't find anyone who had heard of HN.

Not about people using HN. But even being aware the site exists.

Nah I think a lot of the judicial overreach is just pissing off a lot of the regular hackernews userbase off. This fit the law to a T.

And then if it's not this it's blocking the removal of a temporary order. Just tons of garbage that was implemented without any law now all of a sudden is permanent because a judge decided.

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