Although that's true, the new account won't have any karma, which actually matters on Hacker News, since it affects whether you can downvote, etc. So while ban

Although that's true, the new account won't have any karma, which actually matters on Hacker News, since it affects whether you can downvote, etc. So while banning certainly won't have the same effect as on S.A., it can be useful despite how easy it is to create new accounts.