[le-mark]

The point of heroic tales such as Gilgamesh was to draw tribute and sacrifices to the temple of Ishtar. The analogy makes perfect sense.

[satvikpendem]

Maybe that's a post facto rationalized reason, as I'm sure it did draw in more tributes, but that's like saying folk tales across the world's sole purpose is to have sacrifices when in reality people just like making up and telling stories. It's like saying the apostles of Christ only spread his message to raise money for the Catholic Church, no doubt that was a side effect but it wasn't the "point" by any means, especially early on where there was no church.

[paulcole]

> Maybe that's a post facto rationalized reason

Isn't this what you're doing with the idea that the Sri Racha story is obviously meant to sell?

[satvikpendem]

One is plausible as the primary reason, with documented instances of it happening, as I had linked before, while the other is mere conjecture.

[paulcole]

Because astroturfing on reddit exists doesn't mean that this is plausibly astroturfing. Any post on reddit about any business could be plausibly astroturfing by that logic.

[satvikpendem]

Correct, that is what plausible means in this case, especially as we have evidence of them doing so, even in this very thread.

[paulcole]

So it's plausible to think that you're astroturfing here to hurt the reputation of Reddit?

Because people have made posts on social media sites like HN in the past in an effort to change public perception of companies, right?