> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
Accusing others of astroturfing doesn't help the quality of HN, or your case against the poster. Please respond in a chill manner. Use the downvote and flag buttons if people are breaking the HN guidelines.
this is so weird because astroturfing is real, extremely prevalent, and people have pointed put “russian bots” on HNany times without being flagged or deleted. such a weird tging that you cant point it out
Yes, astroturfing is real - however, you do not know how prevalent it is, or which comments are it. You don't have access to the internal server logs that dang does. You don't know whether someone is astroturfing or just really invested in an ideology. And it's against the guidelines to point out.
> people have pointed put “russian bots” on HNany times without being flagged or deleted
Because dang didn't see those comments and they weren't flagged by other users. If you see what you think is astroturfing, or dishonest/manipulative/HN-guideline-breaking comments (like those above), downvote and flag it, and if you want to respond, don't accuse the user of astroturfing, but actually respond to their points. If the people on the other end are really FSB officers or whatever, you literally waste their time and money, and divert their resources from other things they could be doing (e.g. the war in Ukraine). Accusing someone of astroturfing isn't just against the guidelines, it's counterproductive!
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Accusing others of astroturfing doesn't help the quality of HN, or your case against the poster. Please respond in a chill manner. Use the downvote and flag buttons if people are breaking the HN guidelines.