I tried to return to my Habbo Hotel account in 2016 after a 10 year ban. After some struggling to login, I contacted support, and found out that they delete any account banned for more than SIX MONTHS! I waited 9.5 years to log into an account that didn’t exist. RIP “Mr. Funnyshoes”
Around 6 years ago I was messing with my HN settings, and accidentally set my minaway to the equivalent to 6~ years (I set it to a random number w/o bothering to read what it did).<p>My first comment post-self-ban was much less epic though.
> In a Google Doc shared with the thread via social media, our hero explained how posting in SA's community had been an important part of his life, how he had done a lot of growing up and a lot of mental healing in the intervening 100,000 hours, and how he now regretted his life as an infamously abrasive poster.<p>It sounds like someone grew out of their 20s and mellowed out in their 30s. A tale as old as time.
I was also also once banned from a forum for a few years. I kept going back there, never created a new account. Just waiting for the years to pass. It was not some crusade to get back, I was just curious and every few years when I would remember, I would check out the site. Until one day the site disappeared. It would have been fun to be able to log back in and just say "I am back".
Talk about necroposting. I actually find this aspect of BBS/newsgroup/forum culture to be very intersting, and norms around necroposting vary widely between sites. I've noticed that many modern sites automatically archive threads after inactivity or due to age, such as Reddit and HN.<p>I wonder what the rationale for disabling comments on old posts on HN is? I can't imagine that is due to any technical limitation. I've often found old threads and replied to them when I'm able on platforms that allow it. When I find old threads on HN, I'm always a bit forlorn when that eventuality is forsworn. I suppose that's why reposts are allowed, but I can't reply in-thread to the same person I intend to when old threads are locked. It's just not the same.<p>Anyone else into posting on old threads? What's the oldest thread you've revived?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum#Necroposting" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum#Necroposting</a><p><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/necropost" rel="nofollow">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/necropost</a>
There is great comedy in resuming some argument after great delay as if no time has passed, the pettier the better.<p>I’m still waiting for a ban to end on my favorite CS 1.6 server so I can go back in and point out that people that awp mid on dust2 suck and probably have no friends.
They were lucky the forum still *existed* or the ban logic was still in place after 10 years... So many sites like MySpace have gone defunct or others have changed their systems, etc, etc.
Reminded me the 32 year old "Linux is obsolete" thread on Usenet: <a href="https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.minix/c/wlhw16QWltI" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.minix/c/wlhw16QWltI</a>
11 years is pretty good, but ...<p>4 years ago, I discovered that a flame war I had witnessed in rec.music.makers.percussion in the early 2000's was still going on after one side DIED<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24772142">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24772142</a><p>In 2000, Rob Schuh was already infamous for the flames:<p><a href="https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.percussion/c/aA5QKwtkOrw" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.percussion/c/aA...</a><p><i>The Robert Schuh File; How to Not Win Friends and Influence People. Off Topic, extremely long, and not pretty. also occassionally posted at alt.tonya-harding</i><p><i>--those who have chosen to guard themselves against Rob Schuh have done
so with just cause.</i><p><i>If you have been bothered, taunted, insulted, attacked, cursed at, lied
to, lied about, by one Robert Schuh, welcome to the club!</i><p>---<p>I believe he passed away around ~2010; people were celebrating his death in ~2012, and he continued to be mentioned until 2021.<p><a href="https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.percussion/search?q=schuh" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.percussion/sear...</a><p>I mentioned in that thread that Schuh was a very interesting character:<p><a href="https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/drum-and-drummer-6431057" rel="nofollow">https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/drum-and-drummer-643105...</a><p>A genius drummer, drum builder, bodybuilder, steroid user (when it was legal), convicted felon, a sufferer of chronic illness, and epic Usenet flamewar participant.
>Your account is unable to post or reply until Jan 1, 3000 1:00 am.<p>I guess I should set an alarm...<p>(This is a ban I got on the official World of Warcraft forums roughly 10 years ago. Funny that they don't hand out permabans ;)
I know both sides, being admin or mod and being a normal user. I never got banned, however banned users.<p>I realized that this very act can be devastating to one person while the rest (others involved, passive or active) simply moves on and in 99% of the time forgets about the issue.<p>Moral of the story: whenever there is some sort of asymmetry of people involved, one faces harsh consequences while the other or others don’t, do the same. Forget about it, this grudge is totally one sided.<p>Or build your own company out of spite. But never let a ban compromise your mental health.
Related: mods in general have way too much power in communities like SA and Reddit. They apply bans mostly based on their personal biases. For example on Reddit all sorts of current topics from the Russia Ukraine war to trans to protests can get users banned in various subreddits, if you aren’t aligned to the echo chamber views of that subreddit. Worse, there are bots that will monitor comments or subscriptions and ban you for participating in some subreddits.
Been there, I get it.<p>My most recent reddit bans, I as a trans person was in a vaguely trans subreddit just trying to be postive and help out.<p>Person was talking about obgyn stuff, they never mentioned their gender, i typed it as they were a lady. They flipped out i misgender them.<p>Reddit banned me for promoting hate; I appealed. They replaced the ban with a warning. Meanwhile I'm trans and was just trying to help.<p>I go back to the original conversation and OP gets even more angry that I'm not banned for being a transphobe. They call me CIS and I explain that I'm trans and not CIS, that CIS is a slur they shouldn't use.<p>I get banned for promoting hate. I appeal, reddit overturns again. I went back for 1 more message and quit reddit. Censorious echo chamber with literally no value.<p>Ironically reddit then goes ahead and invites me buy into their IPO because I have a million karma. Lol ridiculous.
I am banned from stack overflow for 100 years. I have over 100k rep on the site. I was banned because of a rollback war on one of my own posts. It's probably for the best, the site is pretty much dog shit these days, from the cruel moderation to the rampant bullying and flood of crap questions.
> While it's funny to imagine it cancelled, in all seriousness I don't think it'll be out before 2016 tbh. Would be happy to be proven wrong. I guess we'll wait and see.<p>What a strange thing to post in 2024 after a 10 year ban. Makes me wonder if it's a bot with a message stuck in queue and it's been trying until now. Far-fetched I know but not as unlikely as a human doing the same thing.
A repentant sinner story that will justify all bans by association. Posted shortly after a real world ban yesterday!<p>I guess the Code of Obedience hawks can point to a successful struggle session.<p>Except that reasoning by analogy and association is flawed.
This is why we need heavenbanning:<p><a href="https://x.com/nearcyan/status/1532076277947330561" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/nearcyan/status/1532076277947330561</a>
Democratic election of moderators seems like an obvious good idea. But nobody does it. Why do you suppose that is?<p>EDIT : I guess hn sorta does this. Garner enough upvotes and they give you various powers.