alt Hacker NewsOn a side note, has anyone noticed the disparity of attitude and level of intensity of dialogue when it comes to AI in different HN posts?
Given that there are many threads where 80% act as if AI would cause second coming I suspected that main topic of discussion here would be "is it worth learning CS at all in 2026?". To my (pleasant) surprise the discussion here is much more "normal". Does anyone suspect that some HN posts have a lot of astroturfing from AI-adjacent organisations?
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I'm sure there are bots on here as much as astroturfing.
Partly is seems to be how quickly an article has comments leaning to one side or another. Once a few of these comments get off the ground, it's hard for voting on HN to reflect the discussion these days.
It does appear that more users from Reddit etc. are not just using HN these days, but commenting. The quality of posts and comments has definitely decreased, in line with the quality of content on blog posts decreasing.
My impression is that there is definitely astroturfing around AI, yes
HN has become per-thread view-enforced. It's pretty obvious now what the "correct" views are for any given thread, any dissenting comments are downvoted to death. When the next thread comes along, the opposite view might be the "allowed one". There's a particularly egregious amount of veiled partisanship behind a lot of posting too.
This could be a group think phenomenon, or it could be botting. Hard to say. I'd say in at least a few cases, it's someone with access and interest into bot downvotes landing on a thread and using that to suppress dissenting views.
I actually feel like the discussion here has trended relatively negative on AI for the most part.
Things change quickly though, and it makes sense for opinions to, too.