It breaks the site guidelines to post accusations of astroturfing like this. The overwhelming majority of the time, there isn't the slightest evidence for these. Somebody liking something that you dislike does not count as evidence.
I've studied the question closely on HN and looked at data for years. There have been occasional cases where we've banned accounts for the kind of thing you're complaining about, but we have to go by evidence. Well over 99.9% of the time, users are just making shit up. Please don't trash talk like that here.
Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules from now on. If you're genuinely worried about astroturfing, you're welcome to email links to hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look into it.
Hi Dan, my apologies for that. I wasn't trying to specifically single out that account. I've seen a strong push for MS products since VS Code, and it is impossible to be an accident. My post was made out of curiosity as opposed to malice. It was not intended as a passive-aggressive accusation, but I understand the rule there. I appreciate the guidance.
Internet users are overwhelmingly, like a million times too likely to generate sinister explanations for phenomena like this, which are typically just artifacts of a large population size plus randomness. There's something in how human nature meets the internet which makes us vulnerable to this bias. Probably it's just that we're not wired to interact with very large populations of people. Cognitive bias plus randomness equals narrative.
I think there might be a mixup about how it might appear that I'm talking about astroturfing. I'm referencing a situation where one or more marketing teams have leveraged their large employee and contractor network to engage positively with Microsoft's listed products and services on HN. More of a mobilize from within as opposed to a secret or stealthy program to create false accounts.
Quick edit: I definitely appreciate the "red car effect" you are referencing.
I've studied the question closely on HN and looked at data for years. There have been occasional cases where we've banned accounts for the kind of thing you're complaining about, but we have to go by evidence. Well over 99.9% of the time, users are just making shit up. Please don't trash talk like that here.
If you want more explanation, see https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme....
Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules from now on. If you're genuinely worried about astroturfing, you're welcome to email links to hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look into it.