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Probably, yes.

I've pinged dang on some previous threads which I'd have liked to see discussed.

He's been commenting for a few years now about being pretty much maxed out on his moderation and email capacity, and intensive posts simply cannot get the moderation that's required for substantive discussion. He (and other mods, and member flags) can clean up the worst messes account bans are fairly frequent (107 public bans in the past year: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1737783933&dateRange=custom&...>

Contrast:

- 2023-01-25 -- 2024-01-24: 268 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1706076402&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2022-01-25 -- 2023-01-24: 307 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1674540385&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2021-01-25 -- 2022-01-24: 323 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1643004366&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2020-01-25 -- 2021-01-24: 269 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1611468339&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2019-01-25 -- 2020-01-25: 255 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1579845921&dateRange=custom&...>

I'd been meaning to do that check for a few weeks (I'd asked dang about ban frequency and trends, he doesn't have data handy). At least over the past five years its ... reasonably constant. How many unannounced bans occur of course I don't know.




And for further detail, bounded on 25 Jan to 24 Jan of subsequent year:

- 2007 -- 2008: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1201208605&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2008 -- 2009: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1232831005&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2009 -- 2010: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1264367005&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2010 -- 2011: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1295903005&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2011 -- 2012: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1327439005&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2012 -- 2013: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1359061405&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2013 -- 2014: 0 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1390597405&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2014 -- 2015: 11 [*] <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1422133405&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2015 -- 2016: 77 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1453669405&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2016 -- 2017: 232 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1485291805&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2017 -- 2018: 370 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1516827805&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2018 -- 2019: 240 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1548363805&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2019 -- 2020: 253 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1579899805&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2020 -- 2021: 269 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1611522205&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2021 -- 2022: 323 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1643058205&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2022 -- 2023: 309 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1674594205&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2023 -- 2024: 268 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1706130205&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2024 -- 2025: 106 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1737752605&dateRange=custom&...>

Overall results: ban notices weren't really a thing until 2015--2016. For years up to 2014--2015 I checked for comments additionally by pg as dang wasn't moderator in early years. There may be some additional notices by sctb, in total 344 from 14 July 2016 to 16 August 2019, see: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1737752605&dateRange=all&dat...>.

sctb bans (calendar year):

- 2016: 125 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1483220459&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2017: 137 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1514756459&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2018: 61 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1546292459&dateRange=custom&...>

- 2019: 22 <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1577828459&dateRange=custom&...>

________________________________

Notes:

*: Most of these 11 results are discussion about bans, rather than ban notices. Following 2014--2015 the pattern matches are far more often about actual ban actions.


And, for those interested in this sort of thing, the earliest "we've banned this account" formulation appears nine years ago, on 6 August 2015:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10019003>




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