3 ms·
HN is always subject to astroturfing, it's just generally managed by YC directly. Ensuring positive opinion and adoption of their investments while keeping the
by altdatathrow 6y ago
HN is always subject to astroturfing, it's just generally managed by YC directly. Ensuring positive opinion and adoption of their investments while keeping the competition soundly off the radar.
- dang 6y agoNo, that's not the case. We do have Launch HNs for YC startups that get special treatment (one of three formal things that HN gives back to YC, the other two being job ads and displaying alumni usernames in orange). This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. But those formal things aren't really the main value that HN has for YC. I've written about this lots of times: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=yc%20business%20interests%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so.... If you look at those explanations, you'll understand why we don't manipulate HN in the way you suggest. The good faith of the community is worth far more than anything we'd get by squeezing the lemon that way. Besides which, it would be wrong. There are also lots of explanations about how we moderate threads involving YC or YC startups: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=moderate%20less%20not%20more%20yc%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...