Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction

Re:Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Stra... by nothrabannosir on Friday May 18, 2018 @03:41PM (#17104361)

The HN moderating skew on anything regarding China is palpable. Anecdotal, but I’ve witnessed it every single time I participated (both ways). And I systematically see posts buried which otherwise would not have been.

It’s becoming a nuisance, which is fine. But I fear what will happen if the trend continues. It may very well end up suffocating thoughtful discussion about China and their policies. Which, ironically, would make it all the more important to have those :)

I find myself wondering if it’s astroturfing or blind nationalism.

(I agree the comment about his wife is in poor taste, by the way :/ I would support an amendment to your post, but I guess that’s your call.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Stra... by alexandercrohde on Friday May 18, 2018 @07:47PM (#17105787)

> And I systematically see posts buried which otherwise would not have been.

I'm skeptical that mods are deliberating burying such posts. What can happen is

1 - it gets flagged then vouched, but still has a huge karma hit. This happened to all the Damore discussions.

2 - it has a much greater ratio of comments to upvotes. This is taken as a marker of bickering and leads to penalization

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Stra... by nothrabannosir on Saturday May 19, 2018 @06:23AM (#17107300)

I see the confusion, my apologies; I was referring to moderation of comments by users. This is very susceptible to astroturfing and manipulation, as discussed elsewhere in this thread.

[ Parent | on HN ]