If you observe Hacker News long enough its easy to deduce there are upvote cartels (rings) operating. If a particular submitted link has the good fortune to be

If you observe Hacker News long enough its easy to deduce there are upvote cartels (rings) operating. If a particular submitted link has the good fortune to be put onto the screens of the folks of one of these external rings it will reliably get the 100s of upvotes needed, and fast enough, for HN's algorithms to decide it merits being promoted to the HN front page. Once there its pure gravy in terms of eyeball flow and yet more upvotes. I've certainly given up on ever hoping a link I favor makes it to the HN front page organically without relying on shady upvote eing tactics. HN has reached a point where the upvote cartels, in effect, rule. Its cheating. A form of corruption. A dark pattern. I've considered resorting to using it myself, but have not (so far?) out of ethical disgust.