[jsprink_ban2]

I got the same treatment he did -- and have on accounts I have made since -- and we exchanged emails during development. We both went through each others' posts and couldn't find any rational reason for the treatment (slow banning and hell banning, in both of our cases).

Lack of transparency is a pretty big deal on this forum, and once you've crossed Paul -- without knowing how -- it's scorched earth on any account you make. That's why Josh developed Lobsters, and why I'm user #2, and why I'm glad to see it's gaining traction as a community.

This site is more threatening to opinion and discourse than any on the public Internet, and that isn't hyperbole. The irony is that this is a hacker community, and most hackers would be appalled at slamming the door and creating a curated garden of ideas. I've posted as jsprink_banned and jsprinkles on the topic, if you're interested; won't spam this thread with it.

[tptacek]

Graham allows the dumbest people on the Internet to come onto this site to berate startups he all but begged people to create, but hellbanned a guy who pooped out a better version of HN in his spare time, for nothing. For fuck's sake.

[jcr]

From the date in the blog post, it seems you got things backwards; after getting hellbanned, he created lobsters.

https://jcs.org/notaweblog/2012/06/13/hellbanned_from_hacker...

[zizee]

I honestly can't tell if you are agreeing with what the parent wrote or disagreeing.

I'm leaning toward disagreement.

[zizee]

Not sure what the down vote was for, it was a genuine question. The parents comment IS ambiguous and I would be interested in a clarification.

Sometimes it is difficult to pickup on sarcasm in the written word. This post is not being sarcastic. Neither was my one above.

[hnriot]

Wouldn't it have been easier to just register a new account on hn, or just treat it r/o and don't bother registering? Unless, of course, PG has written some software that identifies your browser across accounts (which isn't terribly hard,) but as you say there's no transparency here, but then it is his forum so I don't expect any kind of transparency. He can do what he likes and ban whomever he feels like.

I commend the effort, so far the content looks like it is a clone of hn pretty much, I recognized many of the titles, but I think it's great you've created your own version.

[jsprink_ban2]

I didn't create anything.

[ukd1]

Did you try getting in touch?

[Lazare]

My first account was hellbanned for no obvious reason. I had a bunch of karma, hadn't been downvoted, hadn't trolled. I asked pg for an explanation/reconsideration...nope!

One of the dirty secrets of hackernews is that you can be hellbanned at any moment without rhyme or reason, and you'll likely never know why. I assume it serves some purpose OTHER than driving away helpful contributors, but I'm not sure what that might be.

[pbiggar]

I think it's fair to say that hellbanning is done to improve the site, rather than for the nefarious purposes you're trying to ascribe for it. Clearly, there are problems with it's application and transparency, but that's not the same as suggesting there's some plot here.

[Lazare]

No, it's not fair to say that hellbanning - as implemented on HN - is done to improve the site. It's arbitrary, capricious, and hugely non-transparent.

No, I'm not suggesting a plot, but there's no natural law that says tech news sites must have a hairtrigger hellban (nor, as far as I'm aware, does any other site have anything remotely like HN's policy). Concious or not, it's a policy that HN has adopted, and it's a terrible policy.

[pbiggar]

What I'm saying is, dont confuse the motivation and the implementation. Yes, its the wrong implementation, but that doesn't mean that they apply it maliciously.

[jsprink_ban2]

To what end? Paul doesn't want me around and has made that passive aggressively clear, so I'm not sure what good contacting him would do. I discussed on jsprink_banned how not spending immeasurable amounts of time in HN threads has had a positive impact on my life anyway.

[kcbanner]

Now we just need invites!