[llm_nerd]

You seem to be assuming that everything is organic and above board on here. That it's all just user/community stimuli, and if someone flies high well clearly it's great content, from which we can infer the reverse as well.

We don't have the source for HN, nor do we have the obvious bias metadata that the moderators have put in place, but simply paying attention betrays that manipulation mechanisms exist and are heavily utilized.

For instance I clearly have a "bad guy" flag on my account, and frequently see my highly rated comments sorted below literally greyed out comments. Comments older than mine, so it isn't just the normal "well newer comments get a boost", it's just that there is a comment "DEI" in place where some people get a freebie boost and some people get a freebie detriment. It's why often mediocre content and comments by the core group is always floating high.

And let me make it very clear that I do not care. I don't harbour any delusions about some tight community or the like, and HN is not important in my life or my ego. I also know that it's basically a propaganda network for YC (I mean...it's right in the URL), and good for them. It's their site and they can do anything they want with it.

I only commented because some people really think this place is a meritocracy+democracy. That isn't how it works, even if they really want people to think that.

[Eisenstein]

No one is under the assumption that any social media space is going to be meritocratic or democratic. The assumption is that some percentage of users are manipulating it and the backend and admins are doing the same. It is an attention economy. I don't think anyone is naive about this. My comment was merely a take on the 'the video game controller is broken' excuse that everyone has when they need to cover for their ego. Sometimes the controller is broken, but it almost never is.