That said, hellbans are fucking despicable. They might be the proper way to deal with spambots, but for contributing members they are as far as I am concerned incredibly unethical.
I agree. I used reddit daily for several years until a weirdo passive-agressive moderator? replied to one of my comments with profanity and then sabotaged my account in some way. Wasted a lot of time and haven't been back there for years, a shame. At least I learn more here, and there are fewer pictures of kittens.