We caught those accounts months ago and their patterns were within the range we understand.

I haven't had a chance yet to look at Troy's latest report to see if there's more that needs cleaning up, but that's a question of inbox load, not smartness.

Edit: it would be interesting if anyone found recent submissions by these accounts that made HN's front page. If anyone does, please let me know at hn@ycombinator.com because I'd like to look at whether and why we missed something. HN has anti-abuse measures that do not show up publicly (because we don't want abusers to observe it) that ought to have prevented most if not all of that.