[shawn]

No, they attribute to me the most extreme bad views imaginable

Yes. It’s partly why I’m banned, and why people call my behavior monstrous even though all I’ve done is point out inconsistencies in HN’s moderation.

I’ve built a 12 year reputation on this site, and it was destroyed overnight at the whims of a moderator. I haven’t broken any rules.

Ultimately, no one cares about the fate of those who fall to authority. And why would they? If Dan is willing to utterly ruin a 12 year member of HN for merely asking “why was I penalized?” then imagine what he’ll do to you.

As far as I can tell, he penalized me for some opinions I expressed (even though they were expressed thoughtfully and non inflammatorily). When I pressed the issue publicly, I was Game of Throne’d.

He dressed it up as a “90 day probation,” but of course it morphed into a permanent ban.

At this point it seems like my account has been marked unvouchable, meaning none of my comments even have a fair shot of being resurrected regardless of how many people vouch them.

Pretty interesting to see all of this stem from me expressing a few opinions. But, I chose this life partly to highlight the absurdity.

[rangibaby]

This post is alive

[nkurz]

I vouched for it, and it came alive for a bit, although not immediately. I'm not sure if this was because it required multiple vouches to revivify, or whether there was manual intervention by administrators. It's dead again now, apparently by user flagging.

I vouched for it not because I agree with it, but because I thought it was non-offensive, and because I thought that it was better for this dispute to occasionally be in the light rather than always in the shadow-text of the show-dead.

As far as what's actually happening, I confess I don't understand. Shawn comes across as bright, polite, and occasionally oblivious to social norms. Which is to say, he doesn't seem that far out of place here. Dan has responded to him many times, including this meta-response linking to many other responses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18454702.

I also confess that part of the reason I vouched for this comment was that it struck me as a real-life example of the loudly-humming child in the backseat, with the hands-over-ears seatmate writhing next to him. I'm not quite sure which is Dan, and which is Shawn, but either way, Merry Christmas to both of you, and best of luck in your respective quixotic quests.