And 404 is also not banned, right?

As a noob here on HN, that's what I gathered from your previous comment:

> In the year since, a bunch of their original reporting has hit the front page

So, a year ago, before my time, 404 media was moderated in a way that seemed like a ban, but now it no longer appears to be shadowbanned, is that what I'm learning?

If a 404media article makes it to the front page, it's because enough people happened to vouch a [dead] article, which is quite unusual and involves a lot of luck (since most people don't have showdead enabled). Nothing has changed on the mod side as far as I'm aware.

Don't forget that complaining about paywalls is actually against the rules. So how did the site get that ban in the first place?