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What would be the point of farming HN accounts? There is no marketplace for accounts of which I'm aware, unlike for Reddit.
by consumer451 4y ago
What would be the point of farming HN accounts? There is no marketplace for accounts of which I'm aware, unlike for Reddit.
- fragmede 4y agoGetting posts to the front page is big business. A launch via ShowHN that hits the frontpage is easily going to get a business going with signups and users that a flop of a post that never gets seen, won't. But you can't simply make 1000 accounts via the same IP, wait three days before using them, and then upvote your story. That'll set off the ring detector and your upvotes won't be counted and you'll never reach the front page. So you buy aged accounts with rich comment history to do so instead. Not that I have any proof of this happening, but the motivation for it should be obvious.
- nickphx 4y agoI would think similar effort could be put into developing a compelling or useful enough product that such tactics would be unnecessary..
- fragmede 4y agoI would encourage you to spend more time submitting posts (looks like you have none on this account), and browsing https://news.ycombinator.com/newest https://news.ycombinator.com/newest and seeing what fails to gain traction and get upvoted, to disabuse you of this naive notion. That the frontpage is so fickle is such a known problem that dang created* the Second Chance Pool** to give good links another opportunity to rise to the top. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308 ** https://news.ycombinator.com/pool https://news.ycombinator.com/pool
- nickphx 4y agoI have no submissions because I've not found anything compelling enough to share. :D
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoFlagging damaging information is valuable to companies who get featured on HN. A brigade of puppet accounts can make inconvenient facts disappear fast.