People are definitely trying to make HN bots because I have seen several get flagged. No idea to what end though.

mghackerlady 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

the suits or suit minded people have realised that HN is good for advertising to the kind of demographic that'll give them free labour and is easily swayed by whatever the latest trend is

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fullshark an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why would reddit bots exist? (In)organic advertising, same concept here.

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tardedmeme 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The ones you see flagged are the very obvious bots. What about the more sophisticated ones? How do I know skupig isn't a bot?

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krapp 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Possibly to test reactions to a bot they plan to build a startup around.

I've seen some claim they do it to avoid stylometry or being fingerprinted, or because of social anxiety problems.

Some people just have a compulsive need to optimize everything, and HN's guidelines and tone policing are more easily followed by a bot than a human.

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isityettime 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> HN's guidelines and tone policing are more easily followed by a bot than a human.

HN's guidelines aren't that strict and the mod hammer is a plushie. It's not difficult to get by here. It's also kind of useful for critical reflection/self-regulation to hear the occasional "you came in too hot" or "don't be boring" from a moderator.

Seems better to me to just try to be sort of reasonable and let the mods nudge you if they need to and let your comments be downvoted from time to time. What is the goal of these people, to never experience correction in their lives? To never write an unpopular comment?

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ceejayoz 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> What is the goal of these people, to never experience correction in their lives?

Look at all the people who complain about cancel culture. There's a huge swath of people who don't ever want to hear "that was mean/bad/shitty".

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krapp 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>What is the goal of these people, to never experience correction in their lives? To never write an unpopular comment?

Yes?

	▲	isityettime 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That seems like a really extreme goal to me. I should hope there's a better way to address the anxiety or whatever it is that's motivating it.

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Forgeties79 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I didn’t say that people weren’t doing it. I was asking this person not to do that here since it sort of sounds like they have plans to