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Hmm, the user joined in 2019 but had no submissions or comments until just 40 minutes ago (at least judging by the lack of a second page?) and all the comments
by Springtime 7mo ago
Hmm, the user joined in 2019 but had no submissions or comments until just 40 minutes ago (at least judging by the lack of a second page?) and all the comments are on AI related submissions. Benefit of doubt is it'd have to be a very dedicated lurker or dormant account they remembered they had.
Edit: oh, just recalled dang restricted Show HNs the other day to only non-new users (possibly with some other thresholds). I wonder if word got out and some are filling accounts with activity.
- verdverm 7mo agoThere has been a shift to the Ai accounts, they use Show HN less now. This started before dang's comment, I assume because they saw the earlier posts about the increase in quantity / decrease in quality. I suspect that they are trying to fake engagement prior to making their first "show" post as well.
- LuxBennu 7mo agoFair enough — I've been lurking since 2019 and picked a bad day to start commenting on everything at once. Not a bot, just overeager. I'll pace myself.
- Springtime 7mo agoYour account posted dense, opinionated and structured paragraphs mere minutes apart—sometimes the same minute—for multiple story submissions. Even with my own sometimes lengthy replies this would be infeasible to both instantly have structured opinions and type them out in time. Two of your posts were posted the same minute, with a combined word count of 146. It feels like it'd take someone superhuman to come across different stories, have such opinions and type and submit both of these in that timeframe or queuing up comments to post rapid-fire. Conspicuously too, as another pointed out, is every single comment of yours uses an em dash, which despite occasionally using myself (hey look they're in this reply) is not in every single comment. Idk, if I was being seriously accused of botting I'd put more reasoning into my response about it.
- Karrot_Kream 7mo agoLol. I know at least a few high karma account who post at the same frequency but they post about anti-AI and anti-tech topics instead on the big social media tech where anti-tech opinions dominate. I guess this exempts them from scrutiny? I love these witch hunts.
- Springtime 7mo agoThey post 146 words per minute across multiple different submissions with similarly structured posts? I know there are users who post frequently in other communities I'm familiar with but not in that kind of timeframe with such paragraph density or structure.
- Karrot_Kream 7mo agoYes. Any of the really heated political threads on this site are full of posters like this. I don't want to dox anyone, but since at least 2019-ish I've found posters that spend hours a day posting huge amounts of content in large bursts on this site. COVID was ridiculous as I presume a lot of anxious people were stuck at home able to do nothing but post.
- Springtime 7mo agoDoes this account for them reading the article though? There are pre-existing opinions that could be easy to rapidly post based on topical discussions but here it also has to be considered the time to parse technical submissions. They read this article, called out a specific discrepancy then commented on a paper on Arxiv in a 70-odd word post then the same minute another 70-odd word post on a different technical post. Maybe like you suggest they're just wired differently.
- Karrot_Kream 7mo agoYeah, there are plenty of very online people who are great at just posting things and doing the minimum amount of diligence to contribute their thought. Like I said, just hang around in any of the high energy threads on this site and you'll see a lot of it.