

How to get hellbanned from HN in minutes - hnbanned
http://bannedfromhn.neocities.org

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pg
FWIW, as far as we can tell this account was part of a long-running Microsoft
astroturfing campaign. You can never be 100% sure of these things, but
astroturfers, like spammers, leave trails they don't realize they're leaving.

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dpweb
Had to look that up :)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing)

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Shorel
Yes, even grass-root is not a very translatable word.

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nightcracker
I find it pretty strange that shadowbanning is the default ((semi-) automatic)
ban on Hacker News - it's one of the most cruel bans out there.

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iamshs
I can see your comments on the original article fine. I do not think that you
are hellbanned. If you were shadow banned, won't the comments be invisible to
me?

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hnbanned
I can't post with that login anymore.

Site takes 30 sec to load each page and this comment was auto killed.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6319430](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6319430)

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mindcrime
I think HN has different kinds of "bans" and some _may_ be temporary, but
don't quote me on that. You may find that if you give it a day or two, that
you will be able to post with your old account. If not, you can try emailing
pg directly and plead your case to have the ban removed. No guarantees, but
I've heard of other people doing that and getting things restored.

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JoeAltmaier
Is it an unfortunate side effect of an aggressive banning algorithm? The
particular people downvoting were not 'out to get you' perhaps - just a side-
effect of folks downvoting as usual to show disagreement, a valid HN behavior.

If your account had lived a little longer, others might have chimed in and
restored balance. But an algorithm that works that way would leave HN open to
griefers etc.

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speeder
The guidelines say that downvoting to show disagreement is wrong.

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JoeAltmaier
I'd have to see that reference...pg has said from time to time that he does
that himself.

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warcher
Well, it's too bad you got banned. Blame microsofts rather aggressive
astroturfing for the knee jerk response, I'd say.

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agnel_k
Ah ha ha ha. I am new here but I guess these chaps are trying to prove their
"Hacker" credentials. BS.

(Update: Having seen ze HN login/registration page, I am beginning to agree.
_bows_ )

