Shadowbanning is when you don't tell the user that they're banned. When an account has an established history on HN, we tell them we're banning them and why: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....

Shadowbanning is something we only do for either (1) spammers or (2) new accounts that are showing signs of being repeat abusers. This seems to be roughly the correct tradeoff.

Responding to an offending user’s comment on a site with no notifications barely qualifies as telling them. If you truly wanted to inform them, you would either put a banner next to their name in the header or simply prevent them from being able to post. You and I both know what the intention is here, just like the rate limit you have placed on my account.

It's telling them in the same way that anybody tells anybody anything here.

Obviously the intention is to inform them. Otherwise why bother? Those comments take a lot of time to write.

When you get banned I'll be sure to send a handwritten letter. I'll bet my bottom bitcoin that your rate limit was deserved.

I quoted a relevant portion from Orwell's appendix on newspeak to someone claiming that Orwell wouldn't have cared about the topic. Got flagged immediately. I expected a vouching or review, but never received it.

My other comment, also a substantive contribution on the topic, got flagged, and likewise, I expected some kind of review, but never happened.

I understand there is some expected falling through the cracks associated with new accounts, but I will tell you from personal experience, putting in the time to meaningfully contribute, only to be flagged for diversion from the consensus opinion or arbitrary filterd really dissuades any further efforts.

And I don't even know if this comment will even be seen, as I might have been shadowbanned.

I can confirm for you that you're not shadowbanned. Flagging comes from users, not moderators. It simply means that multiple members of the community in good standing indicated that your comments are not a good fit for HN.

I suspect your "other comment" got flagged for being political polemic from a new account, which fits the pattern of, as dang phrased it, "repeat abusers".