The dirty tricks of Product Hunt promotions agencies.

It has been a wild experience launching my first Product Hunt (https://www.producthunt.com/products/sensay-3). The most interesting part of this process has been how easy it appears to manipulate the system. I had thought Product Hunt was a platform filled with genuine hunters looking for some great new tech. But the reality it seems is far from that. I'm sure anyone launching a new product recently has been inundated with requests over linkedin, email, telegram, and other social platforms, with services offering guaranteed upvotes and top 3 placements. Having gone through this process today organically and seeing some of the projects today and the last few days lurch forward suddenly, I can say without a doubt that any Top3 product on PH has paid for this service just to say "We were Top3 on ProductHunt". I can understand that, it is something that most people do not know and is a nice badge for your website. A bit like how the Forbes 30 under 30 list is mostly paid for these days, it appears this is too. There are benefits to this, some kind of legitimacy, maybe attract new users (unlikely), and something to display for investors. The dirty tricks? Upvotes can be bought for anywhere from $0.10 to $0.40 however that will not guarantee you top 3. In fact, these companies will actively upvote other projects to keep you at number 4 whilst delivering the number of upvotes you order. How they do it? They use similar shill farms in countries around the world as well as groups of individuals who participate in upvoting on promoted projects in exchange for payment. The cost? I've been offered anything from $300 for a top 3 spot, to $8,000 for a number 1 guaranteed spot. Many with pay-later promos or some other guarantees. Why this matters... Makers and entrepreneurs are told to spend weeks if not months getting ready for a Product Hunt launch. Some genuinely great projects get overlooked because they are instantly outvoted. PH gives assurances that it doesn't allow for this, but it's hard to imagine they are not aware that this is happening. So if you're someone launching a product soon, this should be something to factor in. All of the preparation in the world might not get you that top 3 spot you want. I don't believe you should pay for these promotion services, it defeats the point of PH. But if that top3 or top1 spot is what you need then be prepared for what you need to do. Have you had a similar experience? I'd be interested to read similar stories.