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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3043 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 23, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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How sure are you that Hacker News is not astroturfed? Forums which rely on an upvote mechanism to promote items to the front page are uniquely vulnerable to this. Definitely, people are using it to promote their startups. Why not a little political activism as well?

I very much suspect this is indeed going on.

By the way, from a purely technical standpoint, how would one prevent astroturfing on online communities with voting? Aside from requiring real names, that is.

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