Do your friends ever upvote other submissions? It would be useful to consider this. Yes. Just to be clear, I'm not offended or trying to subvert the system; I

Do your friends ever upvote other submissions? It would be useful to consider this. Yes. Just to be clear, I'm not offended or trying to subvert the system; I'm just trying to understand what the process is. I imagine fighting spam on HN is a pretty difficult job, and catching voting rings is useful. These aren't necessarily artificial votes, since I'm not forcing anybody to upvote an article; they get to make their own decisions, haha. All I do is bring it to their attention.