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The comment that triggered the hellban was: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399303 "I love how Jason Fried,

by niggler 13y ago

The comment that triggered the hellban was: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399303 "I love how Jason Fried, the most self-important man in software (who can't code) is first on the list to diss the security patches. Fuck you, Jason. Learn to code. Then you can diss." I imagine that telling someone "fuck you" directly is a hellbannable offense (even if the sentiment is genuine)

aspensmonster 13y ago
I'd expect more than a single off-color comment before banning someone. This particular user has a long set of perfectly valid and relevant comments throughout his comment history. There should be a pervasive problem with the user that fails to be resolved, even after an open dialog with others, before the community resorts to the boot. Even then, there's no reason for a hell ban specifically. Hell bans are meant to throw off unmonitored spammers who aren't meticulous enough to check that they do in fact have clean accounts to spam through. The Jesus-Spam that's been making the rounds recently is a good example; lots of Bible verses and more or less the exact same message in every post, not at all relevant to the link. Obvious spam. Sabat obviously isn't in this category. However, the moderation system on HN isn't even opaque; it's a pitch black box. Zero accountability.
- nitrogen 13y ago
  What you refer to as "Jesus-Spam" is the tragic rambling (and randomly generated "messages from God") of a talented software developer with schizophrenia. http://qaa.ath.cx/LoseThos.html http://qaa.ath.cx/LoseThos.html https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=losethos https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=losethos https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=sparrowos https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=sparrowos
  - ars 13y ago
    And the messages are not random! If you read them you'll see they always have relevance to the topic at hand.
    - nitrogen 13y ago
      Usually I've seen a paragraph or two of related and often insightful commentary, interspersed with randomly selected biblical verses or Markov chains (the "God says" sections).
- adventured 13y ago
  I've known two people that have been hell banned here for single one-off comments. In both cases it had to do with supposedly disrespecting prominent Silicon Valley big shots that are worshiped on HN (eg in one case it was about Chris Dixon). In my opinion the fastest way to get banned from HN, is to say anything negative about the elites. Even if you're just criticizing, that'll be enough to do it. Zero accountability indeed.
  - niggler 13y ago
    Were they profane comments? Telling someone to fuck themselves isn't exactly the most appropriate thing to say
gus_massa 13y ago
The next comment was also very "unpolite": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399305 Perhaps it triggered the hellbanning.
lostlogin 13y ago
That's not that bad is it. Yes, it's wrong to say someone cant criticize something they couldn't do better, but it wasn't that offensive was it? I'd say a bit of down voting would have had the desired correctional effect.
- niggler 13y ago
  In the spectrum of inappropriate things to say, this is far from the worst. My point was that 'Fuck you, Jason' is never appropriate. I don't think he would have been hell banned had he said 'screw you' or just omitted the three words, but saying 'Fuck you, Jason' crosses the line (and to be fair, I don't disagree with Sabat's point)

by niggler 13y ago

aspensmonster 13y ago

I'd expect more than a single off-color comment before banning someone. This particular user has a long set of perfectly valid and relevant comments throughout his comment history. There should be a pervasive problem with the user that fails to be resolved, even after an open dialog with others, before the community resorts to the boot. Even then, there's no reason for a hell ban specifically. Hell bans are meant to throw off unmonitored spammers who aren't meticulous enough to check that they do in fact have clean accounts to spam through. The Jesus-Spam that's been making the rounds recently is a good example; lots of Bible verses and more or less the exact same message in every post, not at all relevant to the link. Obvious spam. Sabat obviously isn't in this category. However, the moderation system on HN isn't even opaque; it's a pitch black box. Zero accountability.

nitrogen 13y ago
What you refer to as "Jesus-Spam" is the tragic rambling (and randomly generated "messages from God") of a talented software developer with schizophrenia. http://qaa.ath.cx/LoseThos.html http://qaa.ath.cx/LoseThos.html https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=losethos https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=losethos https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=sparrowos https://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=sparrowos
- ars 13y ago
  And the messages are not random! If you read them you'll see they always have relevance to the topic at hand.
  - nitrogen 13y ago
    Usually I've seen a paragraph or two of related and often insightful commentary, interspersed with randomly selected biblical verses or Markov chains (the "God says" sections).
adventured 13y ago
I've known two people that have been hell banned here for single one-off comments. In both cases it had to do with supposedly disrespecting prominent Silicon Valley big shots that are worshiped on HN (eg in one case it was about Chris Dixon). In my opinion the fastest way to get banned from HN, is to say anything negative about the elites. Even if you're just criticizing, that'll be enough to do it. Zero accountability indeed.
- niggler 13y ago
  Were they profane comments? Telling someone to fuck themselves isn't exactly the most appropriate thing to say

gus_massa 13y ago

The next comment was also very "unpolite": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399305 Perhaps it triggered the hellbanning.

lostlogin 13y ago

That's not that bad is it. Yes, it's wrong to say someone cant criticize something they couldn't do better, but it wasn't that offensive was it? I'd say a bit of down voting would have had the desired correctional effect.

niggler 13y ago
In the spectrum of inappropriate things to say, this is far from the worst. My point was that 'Fuck you, Jason' is never appropriate. I don't think he would have been hell banned had he said 'screw you' or just omitted the three words, but saying 'Fuck you, Jason' crosses the line (and to be fair, I don't disagree with Sabat's point)