[threetonesun]

Pre LLMs I would have said the all-text format of HN probably kept the astroturfing low, but these days I'm less sure. It's still a much less engaging format than almost any other place on the web, although again, with LLMs you can even cheaply target the lowest value returns.

[rightbyte]

You could read obvious shilling here pretending to like or pay and use the boringest B2B SaaS products way back too.

Trying to get a proper grasp of consensus on open forums is hopeless.

[matheusmoreira]

I wouldn't say it's entirely hopeless. Just gotta know who's behind the posts. Checking for conflicts of interest is essential. HN is valuable due the fact many notable hackers post here. Makes it easier to know who we are interacting with, what they stand for and who they work for. Invite only communities like lobsters are even better in that regard. Less random accounts adding noise. Some degree of elitism is a good thing.

[xboxnolifes]

Reddit is an all text (or mostly all text) community, and it is heavily astroturfed in many subreddits. It doesn't stop the astroturfing.

[direwolf20]

There are very obvious flagging patterns around certain kinds of politics.