>It's not an insinuation it's an obvious fact of the world we live in. It's obvious to anyone who has used this site, or any other site, for any period of time.
I think it's very easy to feel it as an obvious fact, it's not that easy to really know that it's going down.
Allow me to externalize the subject to avoid involving HN on the matter: Reddit. Reddit has had astroturfing campaigns, of this I'm completely sure because I've seen it go down and get caught and everything. Here is an example about a year ago on r/programming: https://web.archive.org/web/20230611210834/https://old.reddi...
My problem is: say I have opinion A that is opposite to opinion B. When seeing a lot of this second (totally terrible, incomprehensible) opinion, how do I properly infer what is actually happening rather than just accusing that side of being bots? It really doesn't seem like a simple thing.
I think it's very easy to feel it as an obvious fact, it's not that easy to really know that it's going down.
Allow me to externalize the subject to avoid involving HN on the matter: Reddit. Reddit has had astroturfing campaigns, of this I'm completely sure because I've seen it go down and get caught and everything. Here is an example about a year ago on r/programming: https://web.archive.org/web/20230611210834/https://old.reddi...
My problem is: say I have opinion A that is opposite to opinion B. When seeing a lot of this second (totally terrible, incomprehensible) opinion, how do I properly infer what is actually happening rather than just accusing that side of being bots? It really doesn't seem like a simple thing.