6 ms·

I'm glad someone has said this, I was looking at LoseThos's long, long list of dead posts on HN a few days ago, it is deeply tragic, a clearly talented guy that

by phpnode 15y ago

I'm glad someone has said this, I was looking at LoseThos's long, long list of dead posts on HN a few days ago, it is deeply tragic, a clearly talented guy that has lost his grip on reality. It would be interesting to hear from him the steps that led to his current situation. From some of his comments he seems like he is aware of his condition, yet his self awareness doesn't lead to self control, to me this is fascinating. Of course, if he replies to this his comment will be dead, so here's a question - are the HN mods right to silence an account from a clearly very talented technical guy because of his mental illness?

wladimir 15y ago
are the HN mods right to silence an account from a clearly very talented technical guy because of his mental illness? I've also wondered about this. It's OK to use the silencing for real spammers, but for people that are considered annoying/offtopic for other reasons I think it's better to confront them directly. At least let them know that they were banned and why. It'd be the human thing to do.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  He knows he's hellbanned. It's come up before, and several of us with showdead turned on have e-mailed him at various times. He still comes and writes those posts knowing 99% of the people here will never see them.
  - Lockyy 15y ago
    Can anyone tell me how being silenced and hence not having your posts appear works? Is it via karma that you can be completely silenced or does it have to be via a mod?
    - hollerith 15y ago
      See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3477488 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3477488
Dylan16807 15y ago
You don't get banned for lack of talent; you get banned for lack of contribution in your posts.
- nmcfarl 15y ago
  This is maybe true some of the time. But some of the time you are banned for the actual words in your post. This account was hell banned for a while because I used the name of a brand of shoes in a post (on an article about an IP suit around said shoes.) A simple anti-spam filter. I also suspect this gentleman has been banned not for the lack of contribution - but for off topic screeds and offensive language.
whateverer 15y ago
Davis relentless in his work, as you can see from his OS, but that also applies to his posting. He can easily drown a forum in a few hours by posting hundreds of messages, with most of his content being generated by his, very naive, random text generators.
dkarl 15y ago
Off-topic posts are noise that make it harder for people with limited time to participate in HN. It would be nice to make an exception for rare and tragic cases, especially one like this where the guy has made valuable contributions in the past, but if we created a mental health exemption, it would just become an achievement badge for trolls. If you're interested, many mentally ill people are very eager to communicate, and I'm sure you can find them on the web.

by phpnode 15y ago

wladimir 15y ago

are the HN mods right to silence an account from a clearly very talented technical guy because of his mental illness? I've also wondered about this. It's OK to use the silencing for real spammers, but for people that are considered annoying/offtopic for other reasons I think it's better to confront them directly. At least let them know that they were banned and why. It'd be the human thing to do.

dangrossman 15y ago
He knows he's hellbanned. It's come up before, and several of us with showdead turned on have e-mailed him at various times. He still comes and writes those posts knowing 99% of the people here will never see them.
- Lockyy 15y ago
  Can anyone tell me how being silenced and hence not having your posts appear works? Is it via karma that you can be completely silenced or does it have to be via a mod?
  - hollerith 15y ago
    See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3477488 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3477488

Dylan16807 15y ago

You don't get banned for lack of talent; you get banned for lack of contribution in your posts.

nmcfarl 15y ago
This is maybe true some of the time. But some of the time you are banned for the actual words in your post. This account was hell banned for a while because I used the name of a brand of shoes in a post (on an article about an IP suit around said shoes.) A simple anti-spam filter. I also suspect this gentleman has been banned not for the lack of contribution - but for off topic screeds and offensive language.

whateverer 15y ago

Davis relentless in his work, as you can see from his OS, but that also applies to his posting. He can easily drown a forum in a few hours by posting hundreds of messages, with most of his content being generated by his, very naive, random text generators.

dkarl 15y ago

Off-topic posts are noise that make it harder for people with limited time to participate in HN. It would be nice to make an exception for rare and tragic cases, especially one like this where the guy has made valuable contributions in the past, but if we created a mental health exemption, it would just become an achievement badge for trolls. If you're interested, many mentally ill people are very eager to communicate, and I'm sure you can find them on the web.