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Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

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Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#61

Post by uwuajzbs »

bjz_ wrote: post #54
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you know you were "ghost banned"? Do you get an email or something?

It was quite some time ago that I was hell-banned, but I think it was because my account got progressively slower, and I wasn't getting any replies or upvotes. I think I might of googled 'why is hacker news slow', and that's how I found out.

This has happened to mee too to the point that now I change accounts every couple of days. I often feel like I may even use my programing powers for evil one day and troll HN to no end in hopes of teaching PG what a real troll is. For now I'm too lazy though.

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#62

Post by D9u »

lotharbot wrote: post #33
smacktoward wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was partly shadow-banned myself, on this account -- my comments would show up, but not my submissions. I only figured it out months after it happened (I just assumed the things I was submitting weren't catching peoples' interest for some reason), which was frustrating. At the time the account had more than 4,000 karma, which I would have thought would have been a decent indicator that I wasn't a troll. I eventually…

I also got some sort of partial "status reduction", less than a full ban: my ability to flag posts disappeared. I sent an e-mail and got it reinstated. But I still have no idea what I might have done wrong, and neither does the HN moderator who reinstated me. I understand that the HN mods don't want to have to explain every action, and when someone really deserves a partial or full ban they don't want to announce it…

I've also had a partial "ghosting" along with "status reduction" but I never did ask for reinstatement etc...

Eventually my posts were given legibility but the experience lessened my respect for this community, as my offending comment had to do with American fascism (pre Snowden revelations) but now I try not to "grind my axe" here when I'm downvoted.

I have seen that some users here will downvote certain others regardless of the content of their posts and this practice is unbecoming of rational individuals. Apparently the powers-that-be notice this also, as I have regained some of my lost status, and some of my posts still receive upvotes, so I'd say that the moderation of this site is working as is.

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#63

Post by mjn »

The approach does feel a bit out of place here, although it's hard to tell if my view on that is due to "hellbanning" being associated so much in my mind with SomethingAwful. I'm not sure if they invented it, but afaik they're responsible for popularizing it in the late 1990s. It seems to fit their forum-management culture: dealing with trolls by coming up with various ways to, in effect, counter-troll them, some of them more lighthearted/prankish and others more insidious.

I was quite surprised to find it here, since the culture here doesn't seem very similar to SA's.

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#64

Post by bjz_ »

unethical_ban wrote: post #34

Inherent in getting shadowbanned is not knowing or understanding why it occurred. My previous account had almost a thousand points, and though I made the occasional drunk rant, they were rightfully downvoted. To take away someone's voice, who clearly isn't a spammer, without them knowing, is a shitty thing to do.

We're all human, and make mistakes. It's sad to be silenced unknowingly. I love reading some the insightful comments on HN and following the discussions, but the hellbanning policy is one of the reasons I prefer Reddit and am more likely to contribute there (despite it's own issues). It feels like a much more open and friendlier community because there isn't that fear of being shunned for a single infraction hanging over you.

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#65

Post by alayne »

ehsanu1 wrote: post #45

I used to keep a spreadsheet of dead accounts I saw, but I haven't looked at it in over a year. I had a column for whether they deserved to be banned - I'd check their history and try to figure out at which point they had been banned, attempting to discern the original reason. I was a bit disconcerted with how often it was a quite innocent comment, and how valuable many of contributions were in general. I had intende…

I also have tried to figure out the original reason for hellbanning, and I think there are a lot of instances where you could chalk it all up to a temporary lapse of judgement. Sure there are extreme cases where people are nuts, trolls, or both, but that is probably a fraction of cases.

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#66

Post by [deleted] »

msellout wrote: post #38
joeldidit wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is usually what happens in INTJ dominated environments. Trigger happy and sometimes nonsensical.

I'm not sure that "trigger happy and nonsensical" is restricted to "INTJ" communities. As far as I've read, the Myers-Briggs personality test is as predictive of behavior as is a fortune cookie.

[deleted]

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#68

Post by yareally »

alayne wrote: post #56
lotharbot wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also got some sort of partial "status reduction", less than a full ban: my ability to flag posts disappeared. I sent an e-mail and got it reinstated. But I still have no idea what I might have done wrong, and neither does the HN moderator who reinstated me. I understand that the HN mods don't want to have to explain every action, and when someone really deserves a partial or full ban they don't want to announce it…

I lost flag ability recently. I must have overdone it. I had definitely been flagging a lot of non-tech posts that seem better suited for general news sites.

It actually happens more often than you think[1]. Also happened to me recently.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5847829

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#69

Post by andrewcooke »

bjz_ wrote: post #53

This is not my first account. 'bjz' was hell-banned: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bjz It was very disheartening - it was a year before I decided to re-register. Anyway, I understand the reasoning behind the current system (HN is a huge target for potential spammers), but it really does create a climate of fear. Unfortunately I don't have a solution to this.

were you doing some weird voting? because the comments / submissions don't seem to justify banning. normally with banned accts it's obvious why.

in fact, are you sure you were banned? apart from the last comment, which might have been deleted, it doesn't seem to me like you were hellbanned. your other comments are not greyed out.

Re: Ask PG: Please consider a resurrection vote for the undead amongst us

#70

Post by sampk »

i_am_dead wrote: post #47

My old account: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Devilboy Not sure what happened.

Same here: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=salmanapk

Felt like a jackass when I found out. Humans become evil when given authority over others.

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