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If you look at the kidme5, samegene321, and george23 accounts in this discussion you'll note that they predominantly comment about Musk in Musk-related threads

If you look at the kidme5, samegene321, and george23 accounts in this discussion you'll note that they predominantly comment about Musk in Musk-related threads (usually SpaceX, it seems), often sporadically with large delays between when they make comments (weeks and months). They also post the same things as each other (though this is non-obvious, kidme3 deleted the content of one of their dead comments, but it's verbatim what samegene321 posted). It's either an individual or a coincidentally very narrowly-focused group of people who not only think the same, but write the same.

akira2501 2y ago
> or a coincidentally very narrowly-focused group of people Yea, coincident with money.
93po 2y ago
I feel like I can spot musk-bashing astroturfing a mile away because they repeat the exact same criticisms that made big headlines but aren't actually true, but there's maybe like a tiny nugget of nuance to the topic, and it's repeated forever and ever like it's fact and Elon is literally hitler and tesla doesnt actually exist and space isn't real too and elon is just lying to you. but also he's a xenophobic, transphobic asshole who supports politicians eroding really basic rights and liberties for people, so fuck em
FactKnower69 2y ago
[flagged]
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  At the time of my original comment there were about 10 or 12 comments total in this discussion, with the three accounts I named [EDIT: except george23, that was a typo it was georgeg23; george23 is an unrelated account to all of this] making up a good portion of the "discussion". Two of the comments (across two account) were duplicates, literally copy/paste. As to other people talking about Musk, at least they're actually participating in this community beyond just Musk-related threads. But at this point there are at least 6 accounts in this discussion, including the three I originally named, that continue to copy/paste the same things and post the same links and make claims that their links don't back up. It's clearly a bored individual, a true believer, or a very poorly written bot by a bored individual or true believer (I mean, at least don't throw all your accounts at one discussion, it makes it so obvious when there are multiple identical comments by different accounts).
perihelions 2y ago
There's a much stronger correlation: these accounts (plus a couple others—who are also active in this thread) all comment about one highly specific, niche topic which absolutely no one else on HN does. It's the claim that the Bush-era NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin, is a unrecognized key figure behind SpaceX' founding. Just query "spacex mike griffin", and it's exactly these accounts (and people who reply to them). https://hn.algolia.com/?query=spacex%20mike%20griffin&type=comment&sort=byDate&dateRange=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=spacex%20mike%20griffin&type=c...
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  Yes, more (very obviously connected, they're literally posting the same comments) accounts have turned up and gone more in that direction after I made my initial comment.
- mlindner 2y ago
  There was a similar set of users I've been involved with on Reddit that got banned on Reddit for sock puppeting and similarly on Wikipedia who got banned for sock puppeting.

akira2501 2y ago

> or a coincidentally very narrowly-focused group of people Yea, coincident with money.

93po 2y ago

I feel like I can spot musk-bashing astroturfing a mile away because they repeat the exact same criticisms that made big headlines but aren't actually true, but there's maybe like a tiny nugget of nuance to the topic, and it's repeated forever and ever like it's fact and Elon is literally hitler and tesla doesnt actually exist and space isn't real too and elon is just lying to you. but also he's a xenophobic, transphobic asshole who supports politicians eroding really basic rights and liberties for people, so fuck em

FactKnower69 2y ago

[flagged]

Jtsummers 2y ago
At the time of my original comment there were about 10 or 12 comments total in this discussion, with the three accounts I named [EDIT: except george23, that was a typo it was georgeg23; george23 is an unrelated account to all of this] making up a good portion of the "discussion". Two of the comments (across two account) were duplicates, literally copy/paste. As to other people talking about Musk, at least they're actually participating in this community beyond just Musk-related threads. But at this point there are at least 6 accounts in this discussion, including the three I originally named, that continue to copy/paste the same things and post the same links and make claims that their links don't back up. It's clearly a bored individual, a true believer, or a very poorly written bot by a bored individual or true believer (I mean, at least don't throw all your accounts at one discussion, it makes it so obvious when there are multiple identical comments by different accounts).

perihelions 2y ago

There's a much stronger correlation: these accounts (plus a couple others—who are also active in this thread) all comment about one highly specific, niche topic which absolutely no one else on HN does. It's the claim that the Bush-era NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin, is a unrecognized key figure behind SpaceX' founding. Just query "spacex mike griffin", and it's exactly these accounts (and people who reply to them). https://hn.algolia.com/?query=spacex%20mike%20griffin&type=comment&sort=byDate&dateRange=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=spacex%20mike%20griffin&type=c...

Jtsummers 2y ago
Yes, more (very obviously connected, they're literally posting the same comments) accounts have turned up and gone more in that direction after I made my initial comment.
mlindner 2y ago
There was a similar set of users I've been involved with on Reddit that got banned on Reddit for sock puppeting and similarly on Wikipedia who got banned for sock puppeting.