We've banned this account for obvious reasons spanning multiple threads. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
I'm sad to ban someone who's been here for 9 years and made many positive contributions, but the damage you did in the last 24 hours on HN is outrageous, and this has been a problem more than once in the past (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17791870).
It's ok. I expected this. Consider this a criticism of HN. Maybe one day I'll email you and give you a reason. But I can always just make a new account.
Basically I tried using the flag multiple times when I'm insulted and you have failed repeatedly to remedy the situation and there were even times you basically unflagged the people who have been offensive. I'm left in a situation where I invested a lot of time into writing comments and I have to just take it and I have no mechanism to protect myself because every response I make is an opening for them to subtract my karma.
It's emotionally taxing to invest time into writing comments here and emotionally taxing to read insulting criticism and just sit there and take the insult when you've basically been ignoring my flags.
The fact that you selectively moderate everything has led me to realize that it's not worth it to invest time to write my opinions on HN. What's outrageous is that I've been here 9 years and I just decided it's not worth it to let this bad actor insult me and sit here while you basically ignore the whole situation.
The only reason you responded is because I decided to defend my self and this amped up the situation two fold. Other than that his rude responses would have been completely ignored even if I flagged his posts.
>I'm sad to ban someone who's been here for 9 years and made many positive contributions,
This is just not true. You aren't even aware of what positive contributions I have made to HN. I've just been here for a while.
Why am I even writing this. It's not like you care enough to change.
I care enough to respond to you, for what it's worth. I think the main problem here is the experience of being insulted and the wish to defend against insults. Because we have so little information about each other in these little internet comments, it's extremely easy to perceive insults where there wasn't anything much. More importantly though, even if someone does post an insult, it's just a shitty internet comment. Why respond in kind? It's beneath your dignity and does no good. It feeds the other person's inclination to go further, and damages the container here. I'm not suggesting that you turn the other cheek exactly; just that it's in your and HN's interest for you to just ignore it when people post nasty things.
I believe readers (intelligent ones at least) look to see who stopped replying first and extend greater respect to that one. It feels exactly the opposite in the moment: I have to defend myself lest the other comment stand unrefuted. But actually the commenter with the greater strength to ignore insults and/or walk away is the one who looks better on the internet. I'm writing this for myself as much as anything, since I find this a difficult lesson to learn.
I'm sad to ban someone who's been here for 9 years and made many positive contributions, but the damage you did in the last 24 hours on HN is outrageous, and this has been a problem more than once in the past (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17791870).