> we track our own GitHub star count along with that of other projects. So when we spotted some new open-source projects suddenly racking up hundreds of stars a week, we were impressed. In some cases, it looked a bit too good to be true, and the patterns seemed off
If their competitor has fake-looking star counts, I'd expect them to be the ones best equipped and most likely to suspect it.
1. Indicates the astroturfing without actually specifically calling them out 2. Does so in a way where others can verify their work and use it on other repos 3. Uses their product to do so
Seems pretty brilliant to me.