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It means that you've been "hellbanned". It's in theory reserved for trolls and other zero-value posters, but often it catches new posters when their karma drop
by anthonyb 15y ago
It means that you've been "hellbanned". It's in theory reserved for trolls and other zero-value posters, but often it catches new posters when their karma drops below zero (I think that triggers an automatic hellban, but I'm not sure).
I don't agree with it personally - it seems to catch a lot more people than just the trolls.
- chc 15y agoEh, if you're new to a place and come in guns a-blazing or commenting on worthless flamebait (which is generally what leads to your karma dropping below zero), that is at least a very bad signal. I have seldom seen such a person go on to be less hostile than they started out.
- anthonyb 15y agoOn the contrary, I've seen several people who post worthwhile things - definitely not trolling - but happen to have a few people downvote them and then get auto-hellbanned for no reason. The latest one that I've seen is this guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dailyllama http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dailyllama He was hellbanned after one of his first three posts, none of which look trollish to me. Are you really saying that he will never produce anything worthwhile in his entire existence? Update: There are other cases where people have been hellbanned over trivia: CPlatypus (http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=CPlatypus http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=CPlatypus) seems to be exactly the sort of person that HN should be attracting. Read through his comments - experienced dev, multiple start ups, knows what he's talking about, but appears to have been hellbanned over this exchange: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3732360 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3732360