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HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Aside from saying unpopular things, a net negative karma will also do it, which is

HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Aside from saying unpopular things, a net negative karma will also do it, which is a reflection of the same outcome Always check your post history from an incognito browser to see if others can see it

baroffoos 8y ago
90% of the stuff I post is upvoted but I don't care if one opinion I stand behind is downvoted. I also create a new account every month so that probably wont affect me.
- lihaciudaniel 8y ago
  Isn't that against the rules, if not then I should do it, I just realised I was shadow banned 4 days ago and posted like an idiot
  - dang 8y ago
    You can also email us to get unbanned if you want to use the site as intended. We're happy to unban people who give us reason to believe that they'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - mikestew 8y ago
      How is one to email to get unbanned if one is not aware of the ban? That’s the whole POINT of the shadow ban that HN implemented. One little mistake (or two word post in OP’s case), and you’re shouting at the wall. So with due respect, Kafkaesque suggestions to contact the mods don’t help. What would help is getting rid of juvenile practices that are arguably ineffective, i. e., shadow bans.
      - dang 8y ago
        We usually tell people that we've banned them. There are exceptions, mostly for spammers and serial trolls. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=we%27ve%20banned&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=we%27ve%20banned&sort=byDate&d...
- dang 8y ago
  That's against the rules, so please don't: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Plenty of explanations about why: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20identity%20community https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
  - kkarakk 8y ago
    the alternative to an automated one click action is a lengthy approval process...no one is going to follow this. it is trivial to create a new account. considering the userbase of this site it is even weirder to have shadowbans considering it is trivial to check and then change usernames/IPs. also the semi-noob phrase is showing the age of that document
  - nf05papsjfVbc 8y ago
    I'm afraid I do not see this part of the rule explained enough. Why is the identity important there? Wouldn't the content of the messages suffice? Often I do not even look at the name of the poster.
    - peterwwillis 8y ago
      They're saying identity is important because only relating to an identity creates a community. But that's wrong of course, as many anonymous communities prove. I don't recognize 99% of the posters here either; it is indeed the content that makes the community. I believe the real explanation of why identity is important to them is a bit of social psychology. The theory is that identifying with people makes them less mean to each other. So they probably want consistent identities so people will be more civil, which is one of their stated goals.
    - thedaemon 8y ago
      So people can judge you by your previous posts.
    - dang 8y ago
      In the search link I posted above, there are lots of explanations of this, for example https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295. The point is that HN is a community and a community consists of people relating to one another. The fact that you can pick whatever name you want and it needn't be your real one doesn't change that. It's also the way HN has always worked. A collection of nameless posts would be a very different kind of forum. Anyone is welcome to start one, but not to turn this one into that one.
jacquesm 8y ago
> HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Bollocks.
- gammateam 8y ago
  Sometimes unaccepted observations can come across as wildly outlandish or insensitive depending on the topic, and initialize the fallible moderators as well While other things conform to the prevalent opinion and masquarade as insightful high quality comments there is a reason we can still see the now-laughable criticisms of dropbox
  - Tomte 8y ago
    > the now-laughable criticisms of dropbox But was it really? It certainly wasn't a high-quality comment, it was too negative and arguably mean. But the "failure" of the comment was merely a failure in correctly evaluating the business value. Something most of us have done many times in our "forum careers". Just think about all those comments that amount to not much more than "if you don't use the command line, you're not worthy of using a computer". On a technical level it was fine. And remember, Dropbox in this very first stage was a very different beast from today's Dropbox.
- CNJ7654 8y ago
  I don't know if this quite counts as shadowbanning, but none of my HN comments can't be seen from a private browser window

baroffoos 8y ago

90% of the stuff I post is upvoted but I don't care if one opinion I stand behind is downvoted. I also create a new account every month so that probably wont affect me.

lihaciudaniel 8y ago
Isn't that against the rules, if not then I should do it, I just realised I was shadow banned 4 days ago and posted like an idiot
- dang 8y ago
  You can also email us to get unbanned if you want to use the site as intended. We're happy to unban people who give us reason to believe that they'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - mikestew 8y ago
    How is one to email to get unbanned if one is not aware of the ban? That’s the whole POINT of the shadow ban that HN implemented. One little mistake (or two word post in OP’s case), and you’re shouting at the wall. So with due respect, Kafkaesque suggestions to contact the mods don’t help. What would help is getting rid of juvenile practices that are arguably ineffective, i. e., shadow bans.
    - dang 8y ago
      We usually tell people that we've banned them. There are exceptions, mostly for spammers and serial trolls. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=we%27ve%20banned&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0 https://hn.algolia.com/?query=we%27ve%20banned&sort=byDate&d...
dang 8y ago
That's against the rules, so please don't: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Plenty of explanations about why: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20identity%20community https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
- kkarakk 8y ago
  the alternative to an automated one click action is a lengthy approval process...no one is going to follow this. it is trivial to create a new account. considering the userbase of this site it is even weirder to have shadowbans considering it is trivial to check and then change usernames/IPs. also the semi-noob phrase is showing the age of that document
- nf05papsjfVbc 8y ago
  I'm afraid I do not see this part of the rule explained enough. Why is the identity important there? Wouldn't the content of the messages suffice? Often I do not even look at the name of the poster.
  - peterwwillis 8y ago
    They're saying identity is important because only relating to an identity creates a community. But that's wrong of course, as many anonymous communities prove. I don't recognize 99% of the posters here either; it is indeed the content that makes the community. I believe the real explanation of why identity is important to them is a bit of social psychology. The theory is that identifying with people makes them less mean to each other. So they probably want consistent identities so people will be more civil, which is one of their stated goals.
  - thedaemon 8y ago
    So people can judge you by your previous posts.
  - dang 8y ago
    In the search link I posted above, there are lots of explanations of this, for example https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17996295. The point is that HN is a community and a community consists of people relating to one another. The fact that you can pick whatever name you want and it needn't be your real one doesn't change that. It's also the way HN has always worked. A collection of nameless posts would be a very different kind of forum. Anyone is welcome to start one, but not to turn this one into that one.

jacquesm 8y ago

> HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Bollocks.

gammateam 8y ago
Sometimes unaccepted observations can come across as wildly outlandish or insensitive depending on the topic, and initialize the fallible moderators as well While other things conform to the prevalent opinion and masquarade as insightful high quality comments there is a reason we can still see the now-laughable criticisms of dropbox
- Tomte 8y ago
  > the now-laughable criticisms of dropbox But was it really? It certainly wasn't a high-quality comment, it was too negative and arguably mean. But the "failure" of the comment was merely a failure in correctly evaluating the business value. Something most of us have done many times in our "forum careers". Just think about all those comments that amount to not much more than "if you don't use the command line, you're not worthy of using a computer". On a technical level it was fine. And remember, Dropbox in this very first stage was a very different beast from today's Dropbox.
CNJ7654 8y ago
I don't know if this quite counts as shadowbanning, but none of my HN comments can't be seen from a private browser window