Define friends: do you mean HN users or just randoms? CLearly the last is unethical and the first should be discouraged. With that said I don't see anything wr

Define friends: do you mean HN users or just randoms? CLearly the last is unethical and the first should be discouraged. With that said I don't see anything wrong with either going to your HN friends and saying "hey check this out and see what you think". It might well amount to the same thing but I feel it is the right side of the communities "eithics" [on the assumption that said HN friends are community spirited enough to judge the post on merit] :) ---- On a related anecdote; this is how I joined the community here. A friend asked me to vote up his "here's my new site" post (actually to be accurate and fair to him he asked a group of us if anyone had a HN account to add an upvote). Anyway I created an account and upvoted... and then hung around. I like to think I'm a net gain to the community :) (certainly it has been good for me personally) so perhaps this issue is not wholly cut and dried! :)