Ask HN: Does it makes sense to manage users like this? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does it makes sense to manage users like this?

2 pointsflustered1 comment

There are rules in place in HN that will give you a period of time as a new user when your username is green and people can see your posts. Then either manually or automatically after some time, your username becomes black, and this can mean one of two things:

1. You are an active user pass the trial period and people can see your posts.

2. Only you can see your posts.

Instead of this, why not just keep the user from posting? All I have to do to get another user is to delete the news.ycombinator.com user cookie and create another user. You could block by IP, but we all know that causes problems. Is this a commonly used way to manage users, by making their comments totally invisible to others? Why can't this community be more open?

Also, why show the up arrow by each post if it doesn't do anything as a newbie/ghost user?

I'mno expert, and I have no inside knowledge, but as far as I know, new users can upvote things, and their posts are visible to everyone.

On the other hand, if you've attracted enough flags on submissions and/or downvotes on comments then you can be slow-banned, or hell-banned. Being hell-banned means that everything looks fine to you, but no one else can see or be affected by your actions.

This has been discussed many, many times - search for the terms. If you think you have been treated unfairly then email pg and ask to be reinstated. Again, search for contact details, and search for advice on how to get a response from a busy person.

In response to why hell-banning is used, if someone is a troll then it's better not to tip them off that you know they're a troll. Hell-banning is the best way to do that. There are occasional false positives - I've been caught - and they get sorted quickly by an appropriate email.

If you tell us the username you think as unable to votes and/or unable to post then perhaps we could look at previous submissions and/or comments and offer advice.

Finally, the guidelines specifically say not to post questions like this here. You might want to read them.

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