> How do you tell the difference between a shill and someone who actually holds an opposing point of view?
Shills make ad hominem attacks they can't back up. Such as the (at the time) top rated comment calling Assange a "nut" and backing it up with "I just don't have the patience to sit and list out why his other points are equally silly for anyone versed in the space".
Shills don't want to have a discussion. They want to call names and end the discussion. I think HN could do without.
Those two points apply also to quite many "normal" non-shill commenters on the internet, and realistically you should expect "misinformed ranter vulgaris" to outnumber actual shills 100-to-1 in most discussions.
Shills make ad hominem attacks they can't back up. Such as the (at the time) top rated comment calling Assange a "nut" and backing it up with "I just don't have the patience to sit and list out why his other points are equally silly for anyone versed in the space".
Shills don't want to have a discussion. They want to call names and end the discussion. I think HN could do without.