[bartkappenburg]

Thanks for the explanation. It triggered my ‘internal’ red flag when I saw a post on #1 very quickly and with no comments at all. That is very rare. Maybe the authority of the submitter (and his network for upvotes) had something to do with it?

[dang]

It's not as rare as you might think, but yes, I'm sure Garry's (well deserved) reputation was a big part of it.

I noticed one dubious upvote making it past HN's anti-voting-ring software, but that's not enough to push a story onto the front page, let alone to #1. It's also extremely common. I didn't notice evidence of any "network for upvotes".