No, it's not a fair question to ask if someone is dishonestly manipulating conversation because of who they work for. By doing that you turn a conversation into a cross-examination, turn feelings sour, and give the other person a reason to leave. Most people who post here don't want to deal with that kind of aggressive or passive-aggressive confrontation. It's not that they couldn't—it's that it's a gigantic bummer. In that person's position, most of us would just say "why bother" and leave. Then HN would be much poorer for the loss of a good-faith user. I'm sure your intention was to support the integrity of HN discussion by doing this, but what you're actually doing is making this place—which is always very fragile—more hostile. And not just a little more hostile; a lot more.
If you're concerned about HN being abused, you should email us at hn@ycombinator.com so we can look into it—which I promise we will.
If you're concerned about HN being abused, you should email us at hn@ycombinator.com so we can look into it—which I promise we will.