Ask HN: What's the endgame of the AI comments buried in every post?

Post by sostupidlol » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #2

Account “seasoning,” similar to reddit. They create an account and give it as human-like a history as possible (a few comments, enough time since registration that it doesn’t look brand new). Then they sell it to whoever will buy it. This could be content marketers who want to promote a product, nation-states who want to influence Western voters, etc.

Post by silverlinex » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

Post by purplethreads » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

vuggamie wrote: post #4

smt88 wrote: post #2

Account “seasoning,” similar to reddit. They create an account and give it as human-like a history as possible (a few comments, enough time since registration that it doesn’t look brand new). Then they sell it to whoever will buy it. This could be content marketers who want to promote a product, nation-states who want to influence Western voters, etc.

I hope I never run across any of those sketchy websites that buy user accounts. Can you give me a list so I can add them to my blocked domains? Opsec is key.

Post by mrtobo » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 3:53 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #2

Account “seasoning,” similar to reddit. They create an account and give it as human-like a history as possible (a few comments, enough time since registration that it doesn’t look brand new). Then they sell it to whoever will buy it. This could be content marketers who want to promote a product, nation-states who want to influence Western voters, etc.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

Chnmy wrote: post #19

silverlinex wrote: post #14

[flagged]

How does one figure out if they are censored? Does it also apply to comments like mine? Do they block me posting comments?