Comment by ryandrake

This is dishonest and incorrect. Discussing rulebreaking is not against the guidelines, which is clear to anyone who reads them (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Accusations of those specific offenses (astroturfing, shilling, brigading) are against the rules, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who thinks about them for a few minutes.

It makes sense if you remember that Dang doesn't make the rules, and isn't in charge of the rules, and is hired to enforce the rules by YC who does control those rules. Discussing the rules is "noise" in that framing because it can never actually change the rules.

The part that I've always disliked is how Dang always just says "oh trust me, none of that happens here" as if that is a normal thing to insist, don't question the legitimacy of our system.

But it's not like I am ever going to get access to the kind of data to actually verify that claim. I don't exactly expect PG to give a random person like me DB access. I can't fault Dang for not wanting to give out tons of info either, as that aint their job.

HN gets millions of hits per day and is variously treated by outsiders as a special place of experts (it isn't), or internally by middle manager types who insist they are special while being unable to read at a high school level and are disconnected from reality but are still inexplicably in charge of decisions that affect the rest of us.

Are we really supposed to believe this place has never been attacked? Never been successfully attacked?

Your state's biggest newspaper comment section is rife with influence campaigns...