This is absolutely worth it. I've been reading like this maybe half of my account's lifecycle. It is rare to see legitimate spam. More often you find real posts

This is absolutely worth it. I've been reading like this maybe half of my account's lifecycle. It is rare to see legitimate spam. More often you find real posts from accounts that trip the "spam account" detector because they're throwaways, or controversial but valid opinions that got flagkilled. Sometimes you'll even find real accounts that have a years-long history of meaningful contribution. [0] It is most infuriating when these people get hellbanned just for pushing the limit once, or for triggering the mods extra hard one day. [Quick note on old accounts that earn hellbans: I've noticed a correlation between the posting of something MRA-ish/anti-feminist and accounts getting a permanent hellban. If you have such political leanings (which I'm not endorsing or supporting) and want your account to remain in good standing, don't let them leak out on HN. Go to your regularly-scheduled Disgusting Online Den of Scum and Villainy (TM). It may be that this is only noticed because most other hot-button issues are already understood to be taboo, but sometimes the gender-in-tech threads run afield...] There is a whole cast of characters that you can only find if you showdead. Most of these people have since realized that it's a waste of time to post here and gone away, but you'll still see the regulars pop up now and then, or find them in historic threads. There is pg_is_a_butt, whose posts are sometimes insightful, except he ends each one with something like "you're all idiots". There is LoseThos, author of the amazing TempleOS [1], who will usually post some form of incoherent babble that is framed up like scripture. These are usually not worth much by themselves, but they remind me that he exists, which is great. And there are the heartbreaking cases mentioned above, of good contributors getting flagged off and seeing their profile activity slowly peter out as they wonder why no one replies to their posts anymore. [Vouching can actually make this more confusing, because they have ONE comment that gets replies/interest, so assume they must not be shadowbanned, they just must be going senile and have nothing worth saying anymore. You'll also get your vouching rights revoked if you vouch for something the mods don't like.] Anyway, there's usually a discernible reason for something to be dead, but it's frequently not a good one. You'll be missing out on a lot of good stuff by keeping showdead off. Disclaimer, lest one plunge in too anxiously: there are also things that truly deserve the flag and/or ban, and you'll have to tolerate seeing that. It helps that HN doesn't allow media embeds, but do be careful following links, etc., and probably avoid if your sensitivity to offensive text or ideas is higher than your interest in useful-but-controversial information. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=X86BSD https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=X86BSD [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TempleOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TempleOS