5 ms·

Honest question, how/why is this news article making it to the top of Hacker news? Is this community really that interested? Or is there something nefarious g

Honest question, how/why is this news article making it to the top of Hacker news? Is this community really that interested? Or is there something nefarious going on with bots and upvotes due to Russia being involved? I wouldn't have ever thought to suggest something like that, but read here recently on a different thread that Russia could be influencing HN through propaganda accounts. I was surprised by that, if true, how would we know? Is an article like this making it to #2 evidence?

LegitShady 5y ago
I think its safer to assume that all major and some minor social media sites are manipulated by more than one group/agency/etc.
dkdk8283 5y ago
Doubt there is manipulation as you suggest. Your assumptions of HN demographics are being challenged instead.
- rsyring 5y ago
  To be clear, I'm not suggesting. I'm actually asking. If it's happening, how would we know? I was surprised when I read the suggestion on the other thread. And it got me thinking, how would we know? How could we protect against it?
  - tastroder 5y ago
    We don't have to protect against a thing that's not happening. https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/28149974 https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/28149974 looks completely normal, the story is just interesting
    - rsyring 5y ago
      I didn't realize something like this existed, thanks for sharing. What's a bot affected post look like?
- eru 5y ago
  There have been some long term shifts in HN more towards the mainstream (as far as I can tell). That includes more political interest (and different distribution of political stances, too). Reddit, for example, also had these shifts, but much more so, since they don't even try to be niche in the first place.
pseudo0 5y ago
For some reason I doubt Russian bots are upvoting an article about Russia doing shady espionage stuff. I agree it's not particularly HN worthy though.
- rsyring 5y ago
  Maybe it's a bug. ;)
teraflop 5y ago
Please see the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
- rsyring 5y ago
  It wasn't intended to be an insinuation, it was an honest question about how something like that would be detected or protected against. A sibling thread linked to an upvote tracker, which is the kind of thing I was curious about.

LegitShady 5y ago

I think its safer to assume that all major and some minor social media sites are manipulated by more than one group/agency/etc.

dkdk8283 5y ago

Doubt there is manipulation as you suggest. Your assumptions of HN demographics are being challenged instead.

rsyring 5y ago
To be clear, I'm not suggesting. I'm actually asking. If it's happening, how would we know? I was surprised when I read the suggestion on the other thread. And it got me thinking, how would we know? How could we protect against it?
- tastroder 5y ago
  We don't have to protect against a thing that's not happening. https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/28149974 https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/28149974 looks completely normal, the story is just interesting
  - rsyring 5y ago
    I didn't realize something like this existed, thanks for sharing. What's a bot affected post look like?
eru 5y ago
There have been some long term shifts in HN more towards the mainstream (as far as I can tell). That includes more political interest (and different distribution of political stances, too). Reddit, for example, also had these shifts, but much more so, since they don't even try to be niche in the first place.

pseudo0 5y ago

For some reason I doubt Russian bots are upvoting an article about Russia doing shady espionage stuff. I agree it's not particularly HN worthy though.

rsyring 5y ago
Maybe it's a bug. ;)

teraflop 5y ago

Please see the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

rsyring 5y ago
It wasn't intended to be an insinuation, it was an honest question about how something like that would be detected or protected against. A sibling thread linked to an upvote tracker, which is the kind of thing I was curious about.