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Anyone can sign up and comment here, and it's a public forum with no private messaging capability, so I don't really see what would be changed by your scenario.

• belorn 10y ago
  Its about trust. Even on a site where anyone can contribute (like Wikipedia), the community still operate on assumptions of good faith. Wikipedia is also a interesting example in how aggressively the community feel about paid, puppet or other from of dishonest contributions. Without trust the community fall apart.
  • besselheim 10y ago
    The only effect it might have to slightly alter the overall bias of the site. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. HN already has something of a negative bias towards the work of the various security services (that is, the mood is largely pro-Snowden and anti-NSA) - having a better balance of views may well be a positive effect. Similarly for the pro-capitalist bias here, and what almost amounts to a religious veneration for VCs and the very wealthy. Then again, HN is a bit of a chimera in the topics it covers. So we do have some diversity of interests and opinions.
    • logfromblammo 10y ago
      That's exactly what someone who was paid by an agency to shift the bias of HN might say!~