> Does it completely prevent this? No But, of course, it's only a part of a larger system. Along with hellbans, we have downvotes, flags, comments from high-k

> Does it completely prevent this? No But, of course, it's only a part of a larger system. Along with hellbans, we have downvotes, flags, comments from high-karma users showing up higher on the page, algorithms to detect voting rings and sockpuppets, and so on. All of these things combine to make it very difficult to be an effective troll on HN. Trollish comments normally end up with poor visibility and therefore low engagement from other users, which essentially starves the trolls.