http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet)

  but I was going for the angelhack tickets 

Then you were basically acting as AngelHack's sock puppet.

Even if you don't work for them and had positive intentions, their ticket giveaway promise is (IMO) a pretty cheap stunty way to turk sock puppets on sites that would otherwise automatically detect sock-puppeting based on IPs or similar.

Pro-Tip for AngelHack -- not really a good call on this one. Next time you should just approach a Hacker News poster used to the ins and outs of the site to craft a quality astroturf post for you. Quantity over quality doesn't really fly here. If tptacek isn't available, I can be bought at very discounted rates.

Hi George,

Greg from AngelHack here. Thanks for the pro-tip. HN is still a black box to us and I appreciate your tips on successful protocols for using it. We didn't incentive people to create "sock puppets," only to vote once from their personal accounts in return for a free tick. Myself, like everyone else, is looking for ways to hack the system (HN is now a big part of that system and how we distribute information to the community).

It sounds like you understand things much better than us. If you'd ever like to chat I can be reached at [email protected]

"Then you were basically acting as AngelHack's sock puppet."

So then, if I didn't have a green color on my account name, I'm not a sock-puppet?

Or are you saying that you disapprove of upvoting for a ticket?

Just asking, since I don't know the ins and outs of this site. I just read the headlines and jump to the articles. I don't read the comments or make posts.

The fact that you have a green name as an individual means nothing, just that you have a new account. But a bunch of green name posts to a single thread here creates a pattern that looks like a single user or group of users creating throw away accounts in order to spark fake conversation about something.

In this case, things weren't quite so clear cut, it seems like it was actually a bunch of individual users all trying to take advantage of a lottery that a third party had slyly set up so they didn't have to do their own sock puppeting, but the end result is basically the same -- a bunch of useless fluff posts.