“We posted on Hacker News – and messed up.” (We're sorry)

by mikehawkinson 7/9/2015, 2:01 PMwith 4 comments

by gus_massaon 7/9/2015, 2:45 PM

> It is common practice to give yourself a few upvotes in the early minutes after a post so we did. [...] Then however, we made a rookie mistake.

Perhaps it's useful in other sites, but each site has it's own uses and customs. I'll quote partially a few comments from dang (read the complete version in the links):

* Sockpuppet votes and comments aren't allowed on HN. [...]— it's bad for HN and gets accounts flagged and/or banned. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9672368

* We ban sites for repeated sockpuppet voting. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9834751

* Votes and comments for promotional reasons are against HN's rules and tend to get accounts and sites banned. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9853578

by minimaxiron 7/9/2015, 2:39 PM

> It is common practice to give yourself a few upvotes in the early minutes after a post so we did.

No it's not. And it doesn't even work.

I would have flagged it if I saw that submission in the Top 5 on the front page due to suspected manipulation.