Email the mods and ask them to merge the discussions. They’ll almost certainly do so.
Previously on HN, the referenced paper:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46752151
(2 months ago, 374 comments)
A flawed paper in management science has been cited more than 6k times | Hacker News
People tend not to attribute random spam filter breakdowns to the humans moderating content, other than when a specific person suffers over it and takes especial umbrage. It’s more likely that people who visit the story will now have a slightly worse opinion of OP, which sucks because OP is using a poor method to make a good report of a meaningful problem that needed solving. Methods matter! This meeting should have been an email.
Please email links to the bot comments to the mods so they can remove this manipulation and its effects.
I emailed this post to the mods (using the footer contact link) on behalf of OP so they have a chance to assess and reply.