I think this makes selling HN accounts much more valuable, since if you have an old account that you don't use anymore you could probably find someone who wants

I think this makes selling HN accounts much more valuable, since if you have an old account that you don't use anymore you could probably find someone who wants to quickly get their startup in front of a bunch of techies for $100 or whatever. The way it is now, if someone wants to manipulate the front page they have to have a bunch of accounts coming from different IPs, etc. Maybe it's a silly concern, but as more people come here every day it will become more and more of a target.