The trouble with that -- besides the obvious downside of letting abusive users dictate the terms of service for everyone else -- is that we'd lose the ability to hear from people involved with new products or emergent events that are being discussed for the first time. Those stories are supposed to be the key drivers of HN. Some of the more interesting comments are from brand-new accounts.

Umkhonto we Sizwe did go to hell after he was imprisoned and become a terrorist organization, but it's hard to blame someone locked up in prison for that. I don't see any standard by which you could claim Mandela was a terrorist, which wouldn't also sweep up some of America's founders.

Mandela was no Gandhi, no saint. He resorted to discriminate violence when otherwise thwarted in fighting against injustice. But given them sum of his life I would aspire to be as humane a person as he was.

Cookies? I thought the dark side had pie.

I was told there'd be pie.