4 ms·

What are you talking about, this isn't a question of security.

RyanMcGreal 17y ago
It's a metaphor. The excuse I keep hearing is that if we learn how HN filters spam, it will enable spammers to game the system. Frankly, I don't care so much about the internal mechanisms used to kill posts. I just want to understand the policy; I have the showdead flag on and at least a quarter of the time, I can't for the life of me figure out why a comment was killed. That lack of transparency makes me uncomfortable.
jacquesm 17y ago
That's PG's own view of how this works, we're not even supposed to tell people to stop bothering with their posts because they have been banned. I can see the rationale for it at some level but I really doubt that it has much effect, spammers are pretty good at monitoring the effect of their actions. It also makes me wonder who the mysterious 'you've been banned' emailer is.
- shrughes 17y ago
  I don't think the lack-of-telling-people-to-not-bother-posting is about spam, it's about ordinary internet rats who would just reregister and continue making terrible posts. It also makes me wonder who the mysterious 'you've been banned' emailer is. What? I've never heard about this. (Edit: Oh, I glossed over half the threadstarter's text.)
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    > I don't think the lack-of-telling-people-to-not-bother-posting is about spam, it's about ordinary internet rats who would just reregister and continue making terrible posts. That's very well possible. (edit: I doubt someone would go out of their way to alert a troll to being banned though) > What? I've never heard about this. You would have if you read the posting at the top of the page ;)
    - Freebytes 17y ago
      It is possible for someone to make poor posts in the beginning and improve their post content when they realize their role within the community. Many new visitors to HN are likely to encounter this by simply making a one-line 'witty' comment that people dislike. When that gets downvoted, they may tend to lean towards more informative and relevant posts after learning their lesson.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

It's a metaphor. The excuse I keep hearing is that if we learn how HN filters spam, it will enable spammers to game the system. Frankly, I don't care so much about the internal mechanisms used to kill posts. I just want to understand the policy; I have the showdead flag on and at least a quarter of the time, I can't for the life of me figure out why a comment was killed. That lack of transparency makes me uncomfortable.

jacquesm 17y ago

That's PG's own view of how this works, we're not even supposed to tell people to stop bothering with their posts because they have been banned. I can see the rationale for it at some level but I really doubt that it has much effect, spammers are pretty good at monitoring the effect of their actions. It also makes me wonder who the mysterious 'you've been banned' emailer is.

shrughes 17y ago
I don't think the lack-of-telling-people-to-not-bother-posting is about spam, it's about ordinary internet rats who would just reregister and continue making terrible posts. It also makes me wonder who the mysterious 'you've been banned' emailer is. What? I've never heard about this. (Edit: Oh, I glossed over half the threadstarter's text.)
- jacquesm 17y ago
  > I don't think the lack-of-telling-people-to-not-bother-posting is about spam, it's about ordinary internet rats who would just reregister and continue making terrible posts. That's very well possible. (edit: I doubt someone would go out of their way to alert a troll to being banned though) > What? I've never heard about this. You would have if you read the posting at the top of the page ;)
  - Freebytes 17y ago
    It is possible for someone to make poor posts in the beginning and improve their post content when they realize their role within the community. Many new visitors to HN are likely to encounter this by simply making a one-line 'witty' comment that people dislike. When that gets downvoted, they may tend to lean towards more informative and relevant posts after learning their lesson.
deleted 17y ago
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