HACKER Q&A
📣 jbverschoor

How can we stop downvoting mobs?


I've noticed that lately certain companies seem to hire downvoting mobs to combat negative (developer) pr. Any comment that can seem negative is downvoted immediately.

Is there a way to flag block this type of behavior?


  👤 rs23296008n1 Accepted Answer ✓
Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: Basic data analysis can pick up most if not all the shenanigans. Doesn't matter how much they "age" the accounts or hide their tracks, eg IP address etc. Don't even necessarily need high powered hardware or even machine learning. They do help in particular ways if you choose to use them.

Fake vote detection is now a choice not to rather than a technical blockage.


👤 ddingus
Upvote only. Promote signal rather than discourage noise.

This does come with a need to specify a filter.

Or, a sort and aging scheme.

But then we get upvote mobs, hello reddit.


👤 generalpass
This kinds of activities have been going on at least since Digg.