GitLab recently released a policy on HackerNews. Think it says quite a lot about the strategy and authenticity. Particularly this part:
"Never submit GitLab content to Hacker News. Submission gets more credibility if a non-GitLab Hacker News community member posts it, we should focus on making our posts interesting instead of on submitting it."
https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/community-relations/developer-evangelism/hacker-news/