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'd be super careful about thoughts like this:
> and it is impossible to be an accident
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.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...