Actually, I check my username once a week for a hellban precisely because I don't like the idea of being silently censored. An outright ban is far more palatable than realizing after a year that I've just been wasting my time. Just the mere thought of it ruins my desire to participate in the fist place.

Maybe you should be writing for yourself, not for the others?

I write to share ideas/experiences I have. If there are replies, there is a valuable feedback - either as a validation, or as a suggestion of other things I should reconsider. I try to "reward" the valuable inputs by pressing on upvote, even I forget sometimes (upvoting is diverting - I don't really like to spend time on that)

Someday I may be hellbanned. Maybe 90% won't see my posts then, but the 10% that do is what matters - people who see value in dissenting opinions, and may still offer interesting insightful replies

The problem is that if you know you are banned you can just create an extra account and continue trolling.

Perhaps there should be a method for those with "showdead" switched on to petition for a review of a hellbanned user?