> People aren't supposed to upvote or downvote posts for these kinds of reasons here.

Agreed, but scrolling past or hitting - were apparently off the table for the complainers. So flagging was yet another tool in their toolbelt and I bet a powerful one at that. If simonw's pelican posts routinely went dead from flagging, he would not make them. You know that, I know that.

> The pelican test continuing to be taken seriously is a great example of that kind of echo chamber.

You can try and support that argument if you like. But I would implore you to realize that it has been had many times recently and the other side does in fact find value and do not see it that way.

> He metaphorically does because people upvote his pelicans to the top and the ensuing comment threads are massive/bloated.

Users upvote the pelicans because they find it interesting. they arent paid trolls or simonw fanatics.

> Huge amounts of the readership of this website are lurkers who don't even know how to hide these giant posts.

They can learn... it's called hackernews. For those interested, that is what the [-] link is for above the comment. Use it and move on.