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Comment by dang

3 days ago

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological/political/religious battle. That's not allowed here, regardless of what you're battling for or against.

See https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... for past explanations. (Single-purpose accounts aren't allowed in general, btw.)

4 comments

dang

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diffs  3 days ago

This is both harsh and untrue. While I've allowed myself to be baited here, I've clearly discussed other topics.

This is (was?) a somewhat new account as well. How big of a buffer should I have before I'm allowed to discuss controversial topics without fearing the ban hammer?

  • dang  3 days ago

    We have no interest in being unfair, and anyone who genuinely wants to use HN as intended should have no trouble getting unbanned.

    In this context, the test for whether an account is using HN as intended or not is whether it is primarily using the site for ideological/political/etc. battle. If an account is mostly using HN for the latter, which yours plainly is, then it's not using the site as intended.

    I think that answers your question, no? It's not about buffer size, it's about what an account is primarily using HN for. It's supposed to be used for intellectual curiosity in a kind of meandering random walk. It's not supposed to be used for prosecuting fixed agendas, regardless of what the agenda is.