[throw10920]

In addition to "Internet points" mentioned above - influence operations, both from nation states (e.g. the PRC 50 Cent Party, and probably the dozen most powerful nations in general), and from gray/black-market marketing companies.

Influence is valuable, and HN is a place that people who are aware of it trust highly.

(AI generation of random comments helps build "trustworthy" accounts that can then be activated when a relevant issue comes up)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

[ngruhn]

Ok, those are probably not deterred by guidelines though.

[throw10920]

They absolutely are. You ever done any work fighting spam? It's all about making it hard and expensive enough for spam to land that it's no longer economically viable - you den't and can't actually stop all spam. Same thing here.

Sure, the bad actors don't particularly care for the guidelines - until their accounts start losing karma and getting dead'd/banned. Then they do, and that still materially improves the site.

[GreenWatermelon]

Relevant XKCD https://xkcd.com/810/