[rccrv]

Oh great another attempt at the daily China thread on HN.

With both the whatabowtists and the anti-China hawks trying to outplay each other in the moral outrage game.

There are plenty of subreddits for those who like to astroturf about China ranging from anti-China hawks to pro-Beijing trolls.

Sorry for the cynicism, but I really dislike astroturfers.

[RandomInteger4]

Can you cite specific users making comments which you know or believe to be coming from large organizations acting as if they're simply individuals?

[rccrv]

Why does astroturfing need to come from a large organization? A bunch of like-minded users could be enough depending on the volume of commenting or voting. They also don't need to be paid and even have centralized management.

I've seen a couple of userames popping on these threads all the time. And China related threads have an odd number of new accounts posting comments in them.

It can be people that have to live anonymously lest they have to deal with dictatorships or it can also be the same group of people posting the same opinions all over again.

As for names, there is two users in this thread that are posting in almost every China-related thread for at least a month or so. I won't particularly point to them, since I'm not sure it goes well with the guidelines

Though it didn't happen on HN, the unidan case on reddit is a good example. The guy basically manipulated voting in a large subreddit on his own by using a number of alternative accounts to upvote his own comments.

Anyway, if that is the direction HN is headed and this is regarded as acceptable, then I'm leaving.

I don't tolerate propaganda or people spreading it. This is on the guidelines: "Please don't use Hacker News primarily for political or ideological battle." A bunch of users forget about that and I won't be around a website that goes into it.

[stickfigure]

Why does astroturfing need to come from a large organization? A bunch of like-minded users could be enough

We have an actual word for this: grassroots.

[dang]

The guidelines also ask you not to insinuate astroturfing or shillage without evidence. People having opposing views is not evidence of anything other than that a topic is divisive. Mixing in accusations of astroturfing is like adding saltpeter to a fire. It's a toxic internet move, so please refrain from it here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[lainga]

Whoo baby! Talk about tunnel vision!

Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data.