I spend enough time slacking off with just one account. I can't imagine getting anything done at all with two or three.

Perhaps that is done to avoid the rate limiter?

I can usually only make five posts in one 8-hour span, and then the sixth attempt says, "You're posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks. Also, don't count the number of posts tptacek can make in one thread in one hour and compare it to your total for the entire week, or it might raise your blood pressure."

I am barred from having more than half a conversation in one day, while it seems that [some] others can post as often as they can hit "[reply]". So yes, I do feel censored on HN. The article didn't even mention the post-rate limits.

I've seen threads where he and his possey made up 50% of the comments, controlling the narrative and rallying their forces to down vote flag those who had the tenacity to disagree with them.

Also since you mentioned a particular user your comment will be removed. Funny how that works.

I'm glad to see parent comment back from [dead], because I have also noticed it. That's why I mentioned that particular account in the first place. You can search in this very thread to see (as of now) 27 posts by that account, one admitting to robot-assisted vigilantism against certain types of users--namely racists, misogynists, and homophobes. One of the other matches mentions that he can occasionally be quite mean.

I can recall at least one instance where he replied to me directly, and I wanted to engage, but couldn't, because I was "posting too fast".

It's the network neutrality issue writ small. Some people have fast lanes on this site, and others have slow lanes. I don't like it here, and it annoys me when I notice it. If it becomes the status quo for the whole network, you can be sure that I will be engaging in "shovel vigilantism" in the dark of some nights. Freedoms of speech and publication are no longer supportive of liberty and equality when certain favored people are allocated 10000 times as much speech as most other people are usually allowed, and drown out all other voices with their sheer volume rather than the merit of their claims.

Well only one at a time. Then as each gets banned I make another one. Note that they get banned if I just visit HN from the IP in question no posting required.

... if all of your nyms get banned, it might be that you are consistently behaving in a way that the moderators don't like.

Have you considered, perhaps, changing your behavior?

You’re not really comprehending what I am saying. If I create an account, never post or comment, and just browse HN from the IP in question, that account will be banned. It has nothing to do with behavior.

Nobody gets banned just by browsing.

If you're concerned about a specific IP, and haven't been abusing HN, it should be easy to clear up by emailing [email protected]. And even if you have been abusing HN, we're always happy to unban people (and/or their IPs) if they give us reason to believe that they've taken https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html to heart and will follow the rules in the future.

This is not accurate based on my testing. If I browse to HN while logged in to my account from the affected network, that account can never post properly again.

At this point, three people, including a mod, have suggested you contact the mods via email to investigate further and get to the bottom of your particular situation. Have you done so? If not, that does seem to be the most constructive way forward.

The article is about bringing transparency to HN operations. To allow what I believe to be a factually inaccurate statement by one of the operators just stand as the last word is against the spirit of the discussion.

Okay. For the sake of discussion, what would satisfy you in terms of transparency? Perhaps I'm misreading you, and please do correct me if I am, but it seems you've arrived at a conclusion of bad faith on the part of mods. What would move the conversation productively forward?

Edit to add: Without more details from you, I can imagine the mods being hamstrung with respect to figuring out or explaining what's going with what you're observing. Likewise, there's nothing preventing you from continuing your comments here while also emailing them. Particularly as it seems you'd like to continue to participate on HN. I can imagine you'd prefer to do so without the hassle you're currently experiencing.

Yeah, that didn't come through at all. My apologies.

Is it against the rules? I can think of lots of legitimate (and obviously nefarious) reasons someone would.