Damn you got me. It's true, I created an account 7 years ago, slowly accumulated 6k+ karma commenting on a variety of topics, all so that I could shill the M1 laptop in 2021. I planned it all.

And I would have gotten away with it too! If it hadn't been for you meddling kids...

Apple, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, pays people to go and tell the nerds at Hacker News that the MacBooks are good?

That's way less probable than the machines being actually good. Which they are.

And also trusts the nerds to not immediately post the email offering them this deal to their blog for the street cred immediately.

This kind of post is specifically discouraged in the HN guidelines.

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email [email protected] and we'll look at the data.

it's not a new account. The amount of praise is too much to pull off without being suspicious i think. A few fake accounts will probably just get accepted, but the more you use it the faster somebody finds something wrong is my reasoning.