Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#1

Post by josephpmay » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 11:59 AM UTC

If you look at the "New" page with showdead set positive, you'll see that almost every post is dead, including some self posts made by high-karma users. Is this a bug or is there any specific reason this is happening?

EDIT: The problem appears to be fixed (though not retroactively).

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#2

Post by northwest » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:21 PM UTC

As a general request, I would welcome more transparency (about how things are handled and what we can and cannot expect from HN).

EDIT: I also believe that a lack of it will ultimately lead to HN being replaced by something else.

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#3

Post by bluehex » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:25 PM UTC

The only pattern I've noticed is that many of the hellbanned users only ever link to only a single domain -- probably their own.

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#4

Post by sigkill » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:27 PM UTC

Holy cow! Just saw it. It looks like a minefield. I speculate it's probably a bug or something because I've never seen so many dead links together. Either that, or today being a Sunday, has got everyone trying to promote their stuff.

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#5

Post by nhebb » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:31 PM UTC

It's gotta be a bug. Either that, or pg cracked under the strain of running the YC empire and implicitly announced, "You're all dead to me."

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#6

Post by eksith » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:33 PM UTC

I'm considered "new" though I've lurked for a while before registering. There are some obvious cases (spamming, trolling, link-bait, off-topic, URL-shortening etc...) that leave little doubt to the reason, but it seems to be fairly well known that in fact no one really knows why some users get hellbanned while others, behaving far more egregiously (precluding above reasons), don't.

I found this search enlightening though: https://www.google.com/search?q=hellbanned+hacker+news

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#7

Post by jlgaddis » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:37 PM UTC

I submitted a link a few days ago about a possible IE 0-day in the wild and it immediately became "[dead]". It's the first submission I've ever made and I haven't, AFAIK, broken any HN rules since I finally created my account (after years of lurking).

On a related note, you will be hellbanned if you create an HN account over Tor (even if you "don't do anything wrong").

Considering the recent NSA revelations, I think that's pretty unfair but, hey, what can ya do...

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#8

Post by damienkatz » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:39 PM UTC

Posting out of turn? That's a banning.

Posting from the wrong browser window? That's a banning.

Staring at my post? That's a banning.

Post about banning? Oh, better believe that's a banning.

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#9

Post by codesuela » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:40 PM UTC

jlgaddis wrote: post #7

I submitted a link a few days ago about a possible IE 0-day in the wild and it immediately became "[dead]". It's the first submission I've ever made and I haven't, AFAIK, broken any HN rules since I finally created my account (after years of lurking). On a related note, you will be hellbanned if you create an HN account over Tor (even if you "don't do anything wrong"). Considering the recent NSA revelations, I think…

It's either that or implementing captchas. And I think pg is not very motivated to do the latter.

edit: top of my head reply/speculation so I don't claim any factual accuracy.

Re: Ask PG: Why is everybody hellbanned?

#10

Post by eksith » Sun, Aug 04, 2013, 12:42 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #5

It's gotta be a bug. Either that, or pg cracked under the strain of running the YC empire and implicitly announced, "You're all dead to me."

Interesting theory! We should write a bot to run a Bayesian-Freudian analysis of his Twitter stream for hints ;)