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If you suspect astroturfing, the best course of action is to email the mods. They're very open about this particular topic. That being said, this is a forum fo

If you suspect astroturfing, the best course of action is to email the mods. They're very open about this particular topic. That being said, this is a forum for VC and startup talk among other things, so it would be pretty surprising if there wasn't some astroturfing at play. Self-promotion comes with the territory. The mods are doing their best but to some extent it's in the game. Finally, there's no irony about this no longer being on the front page. When I first clicked into this thread, I was surprised it was FP still, because it had twice as many comments as votes and that usually trips the flamewar detector. I think folks are generally unaware of the systems that make HN tick, and that can make the experience pretty confusing.

MegaButts 4y ago
> Finally, there's no irony about this no longer being on the front page. Sure there is. It's an interesting conversation to me and it's being pushed away from the front page. I didn't say it was foul play, I said it was ironic. The algorithms are so fearful of controversy they push away interesting topics. Also, I've emailed the mods many times before. My experiences have been mixed.
- TimTheTinker 4y ago
  > The algorithms are so fearful of controversy they push away interesting topics. That's just one of the tradeoffs. HN optimizes for curiosity, which does sometimes mean using blunt automated tools to fend off negative subjects. Fundamentally, I think over-meta-commenting on the state of HN is considered boring here (at least by the mods), since it's been covered so many times before.
- Karrot_Kream 4y ago
  HN prioritizes content with more upvotes than discussion. This is a very common "algorithm". Lobsters uses it, Twitter users call it being "ratio'd", etc. In my experience it works great. Most link aggregators try to optimize for good content, not good conversation starters.

MegaButts 4y ago

> Finally, there's no irony about this no longer being on the front page. Sure there is. It's an interesting conversation to me and it's being pushed away from the front page. I didn't say it was foul play, I said it was ironic. The algorithms are so fearful of controversy they push away interesting topics. Also, I've emailed the mods many times before. My experiences have been mixed.

TimTheTinker 4y ago
> The algorithms are so fearful of controversy they push away interesting topics. That's just one of the tradeoffs. HN optimizes for curiosity, which does sometimes mean using blunt automated tools to fend off negative subjects. Fundamentally, I think over-meta-commenting on the state of HN is considered boring here (at least by the mods), since it's been covered so many times before.
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
HN prioritizes content with more upvotes than discussion. This is a very common "algorithm". Lobsters uses it, Twitter users call it being "ratio'd", etc. In my experience it works great. Most link aggregators try to optimize for good content, not good conversation starters.