[mlthoughts2018]

Absolutely. The way the same comments are rapid-fire added to these threads every time is deeply suspicious and a great cause for concern.

This should be one of the top comments, it’s not reasonable to disagree with this worry given the commenter behavior on this thread and all the previous iterations.

[dang]

You also can't break the site guidelines like this, so please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stop.

All you need to do is look at the public 11-year history of the account you're complaining about to get an idea of how ridiculous this is. The bar for serious comments here is incredibly low—but it needs to be higher than that. I'm sure you can do much better if you want to, and if you don't want to, please find another forum that's better aligned with what you do want.

All of this holds even if foldr is completely wrong. I'm not making any claim about their views—I don't even know what their views are, nor care. The moderation issue here is that on this site, people can't issue the garden-variety internet insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, spying, etc., that the internet loves to generate ad nauseum. As the guidelines say, if you have evidence you should send it to [e-mail] so we can investigate. In this case you could simply have done the "investigation" yourself.

There's reams of previous explanation at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme..., for anyone who wants to understand why we have this rule. The short version: because insinuations of astroturfing are poison to community, and because they nearly always collapse under inspection, usually trivially, as in this case.

[mlthoughts2018]

I very sincerely and respectfully disagree. foldr’s comments here are very out of line. They are seeded comments copy/pasting the same smearing of Craig Murray’s alleged bias on every post about the Assange hearing.

It’s unconscionable to me that you would think the guidelines rule out my comment but wouldn’t find deep, inarguable cause for more concern over foldr’s comments.

I cannot see any way the account age or comment history bears relevance. Being a commonly-seen community member for years, then suddenly deciding to spam smear comments about Craig Murray’s alleged bias on posts about the Assange hearing still is quite flagrant.

[foldr]

Brief factual note: none of my recent comments mentions Craig Murray or says that he has a bias. Some other posters did this. I've been posting about Assange for many years, but this will be my last word on him as I am no longer allowed to go there.

I wish you'd just talk to me if you really think there is something sinister behind my posts, as you seem like a sincere person. It's actually quite hurtful to be accused of such things, regardless of how annoying or wrong I might be. Contact details temporarily on my profile.

[dang]

There are two separate issues:

1. Posting repetitively on flamewar topics is against the site guidelines.

2, Accusing other users of astroturfing is against the site guidelines.

foldr did #1. You did #2. You both broke the site guidelines so I replied to both of you.

[foldr]

Same offer to you. Call me and lets talk about it, if you really think I am an agent of some kind. I find it worrying that trust is breaking down to this extent. Even if we disagree strongly, perhaps I can at least persuade you that my opinions are my own.