>> I like my humor like I like my wine: dry and produced in a manner which oppresses many people.
Always nice to find a kindred soul. :-) But I really prefer people I don't agree with, arguing teaches me more.
>> A real business proposal is one which uses machine learning to detect it.
There was a story on HN recently about CIA (NSA? Some TLA) wanting an irony/sarcasm detector. C Stross had lots of fun with it. I guess such a detector would need a full damn General AI -- and probably not even that is enough.
Some form of accredited user accounts (HN/slashdot style) could vote for if something should be flagged. I can't see anything better, really.
Re the Russian subject, I saw these on FB some time ago:
Edit: On consideration, re a detector: This is a type of spam, the comments seem to be written and then translated. The problem is that detectors need to recognize new comments/angles at least every week, maybe more than once a day. And quite quickly it would be rewritten to fool the detectors. I don't believe in automation here, but please prove me wrong.
Honestly though astroturfing is pretty deplorable. A real business proposal is one which uses machine learning to detect it.