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Let's all prattle on about the guy as if he isn't an active member of this forum. The man can read you know, most developers can. I'm not trying to censor discu

Let's all prattle on about the guy as if he isn't an active member of this forum. The man can read you know, most developers can. I'm not trying to censor discussion but it just seems a little odd to publicly deconstruct this guy in every mental health thread like he's some type of lab specimen. It is indeed possible to read comments while hellbanned.

ghotli 13y ago
This. A billion times this.
habosa 13y ago
+1. He can read these comments. I don't care what your mental state is, seeing it discussed on Hacker News is never going to help.
pndmnm 13y ago
If you'd like to read a community actually interacting with him rather than hellbanning him under the rug, check out this Metafilter thread: http://www.metafilter.com/119424/An-Operating-System-for-Songs-from-God http://www.metafilter.com/119424/An-Operating-System-for-Son... Long, but worth the read.
- selmnoo 13y ago
  And here he is asking us for help and being ignored: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1782800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1782800 Actually just go through the his submission history and randomly click a few links: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=losethos https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=losethos You can actually see his condition gradually getting worse over months and years. I wonder if he would have turned out differently had we embraced him - and helped him?
  - diminoten 13y ago
    Is that our responsibility, to save a man from mental illness? I don't feel it is.
    - selmnoo 13y ago
      Is it our responsibility to help people who have down syndrome from hurting themselves? Is it our responsibility to help people with physical handicap? Is it our responsibility to help people suffering from depression? I'm offended by the thought and the idea that we should just ignore our ill. What if the person suffering from the mental illness was your brother or sister? Think about if it was you, and no-one reached out to you - how would you feel?
      - philh 13y ago
        "Responsibility" is one of those words that makes it really hard for people to talk to each other. If a person does not go out of their way to do the things you listed, I do not consider that a moral failing on their part. Especially if the cost to them is more than the benefit to the other person. If you keep jumping on bullets, sooner or later you run out of flesh.
      - diminoten 13y ago
        You're way overgeneralizing. I mean you and I, users of Hacker News, to help one specific person. That's all. It should be blatantly obvious that, were the situation different, I'd feel differently. Not everything is a moral crusade, Internet warrior.
      - dereferenced 13y ago
        Then you'd ask a medical professional for help, not comments on a website.
  - Crito 13y ago
    In the past he has made reference to doctors and his parents. The impression that I get is that he is getting more help right now than HN can give him.
  - kristofferR 13y ago
    After the hellban several years ago all his submissions were automatically killed instantly after posting. So you can't blame the community for not responding, the system made it impossible to respond/upvote at all. This is one of the reasons why hellbanning is such a bad idea, leaving the poster to believe that everybody is actively ignoring him instead of just not being able to see him/interact with him. Making regular healthy people waste a lot of their time posting content and feeling totally ignored is bad enough, subjecting people with mental health issues to that is even more unethical.
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    Ah, damn, the fact that that post is dead is very sad. I know it's years old, but, losethos, do you still need advice? (I'll probably see your reply, as I have showdead on). We could probably get a thread going, if so.
krapp 13y ago
The relationship between this community and losethos seems very strange to me. Perhaps because this is the first community i've been involved in where hellbanning was a feature. Any other site would have banned him outright for his own good but the hellban encourages him to continue posting. The result is almost as if he's treated like a mascot, or some brilliant but obstinate child being actively ignored at the adults table. We know he's there, he surely knows he's hellbanned, and he knows we know he's there. He's both the best and worst argument about hellbanning as an effective form of moderation.
- thaumaturgy 13y ago
  HN as a community exhibits a lot of sociopathic traits (which makes this whole thread a little bit funny, but not funny-haha).

ghotli 13y ago

This. A billion times this.

habosa 13y ago

+1. He can read these comments. I don't care what your mental state is, seeing it discussed on Hacker News is never going to help.

pndmnm 13y ago

If you'd like to read a community actually interacting with him rather than hellbanning him under the rug, check out this Metafilter thread: http://www.metafilter.com/119424/An-Operating-System-for-Songs-from-God http://www.metafilter.com/119424/An-Operating-System-for-Son... Long, but worth the read.

selmnoo 13y ago
And here he is asking us for help and being ignored: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1782800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1782800 Actually just go through the his submission history and randomly click a few links: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=losethos https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=losethos You can actually see his condition gradually getting worse over months and years. I wonder if he would have turned out differently had we embraced him - and helped him?
- diminoten 13y ago
  Is that our responsibility, to save a man from mental illness? I don't feel it is.
  - selmnoo 13y ago
    Is it our responsibility to help people who have down syndrome from hurting themselves? Is it our responsibility to help people with physical handicap? Is it our responsibility to help people suffering from depression? I'm offended by the thought and the idea that we should just ignore our ill. What if the person suffering from the mental illness was your brother or sister? Think about if it was you, and no-one reached out to you - how would you feel?
    - philh 13y ago
      "Responsibility" is one of those words that makes it really hard for people to talk to each other. If a person does not go out of their way to do the things you listed, I do not consider that a moral failing on their part. Especially if the cost to them is more than the benefit to the other person. If you keep jumping on bullets, sooner or later you run out of flesh.
    - diminoten 13y ago
      You're way overgeneralizing. I mean you and I, users of Hacker News, to help one specific person. That's all. It should be blatantly obvious that, were the situation different, I'd feel differently. Not everything is a moral crusade, Internet warrior.
    - dereferenced 13y ago
      Then you'd ask a medical professional for help, not comments on a website.
- Crito 13y ago
  In the past he has made reference to doctors and his parents. The impression that I get is that he is getting more help right now than HN can give him.
- kristofferR 13y ago
  After the hellban several years ago all his submissions were automatically killed instantly after posting. So you can't blame the community for not responding, the system made it impossible to respond/upvote at all. This is one of the reasons why hellbanning is such a bad idea, leaving the poster to believe that everybody is actively ignoring him instead of just not being able to see him/interact with him. Making regular healthy people waste a lot of their time posting content and feeling totally ignored is bad enough, subjecting people with mental health issues to that is even more unethical.
- StavrosK 13y ago
  Ah, damn, the fact that that post is dead is very sad. I know it's years old, but, losethos, do you still need advice? (I'll probably see your reply, as I have showdead on). We could probably get a thread going, if so.

krapp 13y ago

The relationship between this community and losethos seems very strange to me. Perhaps because this is the first community i've been involved in where hellbanning was a feature. Any other site would have banned him outright for his own good but the hellban encourages him to continue posting. The result is almost as if he's treated like a mascot, or some brilliant but obstinate child being actively ignored at the adults table. We know he's there, he surely knows he's hellbanned, and he knows we know he's there. He's both the best and worst argument about hellbanning as an effective form of moderation.

thaumaturgy 13y ago
HN as a community exhibits a lot of sociopathic traits (which makes this whole thread a little bit funny, but not funny-haha).