Anything you post can't be seen by others unless they've turned on dead posts in their configuration, in which case anything you post has [dead] prefixed on it.
Though it happens less than in other forums, wagon circling is definitely a persistent problem on HN. I believe it's only further exacerbated by the fact that downvoted comments are displayed in a difficult to read color, meaning that downvotes can effectively censor things the majority doesn't like, regardless of the merit of the argument. It's not as bad as on Reddit, where groups of people form downvote cabals to actively censor specific users or ideas, but it's still problematic.
Interestingly, since it is easy to highlight and read them, I almost always read downvoted comments. Even in a post, like this one, with lots of comments, where I start to skim them, but I still read most of the downvoted ones.
I do too; it's just annoying to have to manually highlight something in order to read it.
In general, a 1-line downvoted post is downvoted for good reason. For multiline posts, it's far more often a good post that people didn't like for other reasons. Those are the ones I take steps to manually highlight and read, and then upvote if I think it was downvoted for the wrong reasons.
You can post, but by default no one besides you can see it. To the poster, it just appears as a normal comment. Turn on "showdead" to see posts from hellbanned users.
I had a hellbanned account before this one, and the other thing I noticed is that each page load took forever (10+ seconds) instead of the basically instantaneous loading of my current account. A very passive-aggressive way to annoy someone enough to stop posting in my opinion.
I can confirm that you are NOT hellbanned. One way to see if you are is logging out and see if your comment is still there. If it is not, you are banned.
Though it happens less than in other forums, wagon circling is definitely a persistent problem on HN. I believe it's only further exacerbated by the fact that downvoted comments are displayed in a difficult to read color, meaning that downvotes can effectively censor things the majority doesn't like, regardless of the merit of the argument. It's not as bad as on Reddit, where groups of people form downvote cabals to actively censor specific users or ideas, but it's still problematic.