It's like I'm in /r/hailcorporate. I'm struggling to believe that anyone seriously thinks Apple have set up an astroturfing program in Hacker News to improve the reputation of the MBP. Of course they haven't. Not everything is a conspiracy theory.

Somehow I doubt a part of Apple's strategy is to pay shills to sell for them. There are plenty of fanboys (and fangirls) already doing that for free, and I think you'd be laughed out of the board room for bringing up such a strategy.

<s> Besides, everybody knows the only shills on HN are from nation-states. </s>

Where does this trust for apple come from? At this point it is safe to assume that every marketing agency does this as disaster recovery strategie.

Maybe they decided they can't rely on Jobs cult of personality anymore.

At least it's easy to tell the apple shills, usernames start with 'i'.

All of the comments from the account are in line with what is being said here -- that the complaints over battery life don't apply to everyone, this commenter is happy with it, and they recommend people to try it and form their own opinions. What exactly is "shilling" about that?

Nevertheless, calling someone a shill isn't useful, nor is bringing up the age of their account (ironic that yours is also low, and that I would point it out right now after saying such).

They aren't wrong though. The account shows all the signs of an astroturfing account.

$0. Just tired of all the overhype. Buy one yourself. If you don't like it/battery sucks return it for Jan 8th and get something better suited for you.

Rebuts shill accusations with buy recommendation. It's a bold strategy.

Right, because I must be a paid shill to write about my experience that is counter to the popular opinion shared on hacker news. Look, I bought one. All I said is I don't experience the battery issues. Your accusations on me shilling is hilarious. I'm done with this thread. If you need a safe space where people won't challenge your ideas continue as is.

It's less about you sticking up for a product you enjoy, and more about the fact you've got basically 0 post history outside of defending a product that Apple has been scrambling to justify in the press.

Probably just a perfect storm... but you can't really fault people for being skeptical.