>Have you suspected machine generated content in HN comment threads?
Yes absolutely. The thing which breaks bots is if you ask them to answer a specific question. They reveal themselves.
>Would it pain you to discover you had responded to a machine?
No.
Fundamentally the HN comment section has had its eternal september because of HN being listed high on the 'alternatives to reddit' options. HN now doesn't allow discussions.
Instead, the comments are about sorting your thoughts on the matter. See if there's thoughts which you haven't considered.
>Do you know anything about the prevalence of such content here or on other fora?
Bots reveal themselves through absurdity which makes sense in depth. A handshake with 5 hands as it were.
>Do you disagree with my statement? Why?
There's a 0% chance that there's no bots. Bots of vary degrees of sophistication have existed since irc days. My favourite I found was one which copied conversations from 1 irc channel to another. So conversations are happening which you think you are interacting with but truly you arent.
