I looked through the account's history. Your statement isn't accurate, and you've violated the site guidelines by posting this. If you're worried about abuse, please email us at hn@ycombinator.com, as they ask. Don't post accusations of astroturfing or shillage in the threads—the poison that adds to the site is much worse than whatever it's trying to combat.
Thanks for looking Dang. I don't agree with you this time though. Hiding abuse out of the comment chain behind emails is a good way to make things disappear. What kind of community is this if you can't question the motives of someone with a penchant for only replying to policital threads of a certain flavor?
His profile is public, it's not like I made everything up. He posts on articles with "China" in the name about 90% of the time. And basically never replies to his own comment responses or posts that don't relate to China.
> Don't post accusations of astroturfing or shillage in the threads—the poison that adds to the site is much worse than whatever it's trying to combat.
I don't agree at all. If I didn't say anything about the guy's post history would you have checked? I don't think so. And even though you did, it's very clearly biased towards "China" news articles and the CCP party line.
I'm out. Leaving on my own this time. I appreciate the great work you and the moderators do. But if you can't admit the most obvious AstroTurf shill account I've ever seen is real, there's no point sticking around being a thorn in your side.
> What kind of community is this if you can't question the motives of someone with a penchant for only replying to policital threads of a certain flavor?
The kind of community where users are asked to assume good faith and not allowed to sling mud at each other.
> If I didn't say anything about the guy's post history would you have checked?
In this case I already had, because another user followed the guidelines and emailed us.
> it's very clearly biased towards "China" news articles and the CCP party line
Every account that posts on political issues is biased toward their point of view. Alas, many users, when confronted with an opposing bias, simply can't imagine that someone else sincerely disagrees with them. That's absurd, of course, but it's what underlies virtually every accusation of astroturfing/shilling/spying on political topics, including, I'm pretty sure, the one you're making here.
> the most obvious AstroTurf shill account I've ever seen
That is a good example of what I just described, as anyone who looks carefully at the account's public history will see. It's true that they were breaking the site guidelines by using HN primarily for political battle. But that's not evidence of astroturfing or shilling, it's evidence that they're fighting for the group they're loyal to. Such loyalty isn't hard to understand and needs no sinister explanation. It's as simple as that people come from different backgrounds. HN is a diverse international community, so many different backgrounds are represented here. As long as people follow the guidelines, they have a right to comment without being denounced or smeared.
