It does get a lot of spammers. Probably hackers trying to have fun getting around HN restrictions, as well as some traveling spambots. I wouldn't say it's "not

It does get a lot of spammers. Probably hackers trying to have fun getting around HN restrictions, as well as some traveling spambots. I wouldn't say it's "not huge" - HN regularly pops up at the top of Google searches. Downvotes do help a lot. dang often refers to them as " white blood cells". Some new accounts do get flagged as spam accidentally, especially when they sign up to promote themselves in a less spammy manner. Vouches do help here and if it's really bad, and you can email HN if you think someone is wrongly flagged as a spammer.