How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page
Vouched for and upvoted because I think it's important for readers here to see how much effort goes into creating posts that game the system.  I think it's better for these strategies to be known than hidden.  It will be interesting to see how tactics like this one evolve as ChatGPT use becomes more widespread.There's a definite tension between the rule of not accusing other users of being shills and the reality that there are quite a few shills out there.  I think it a still good rule, but not because it's never right.  Rather, the rule is good because the  false accusations do more harm than letting some shilling slip by.