I suggest a system where users like us with "showdead" enabled can flag accounts that we think were hellbanned unnecessarily.

How is hellbanning supposed to be better than, say, a mod telling someone off or banning them and giving a reason for the ban? Assuming hellbanned users are actual spammers, they're still generating spam. Assuming they're not, legitimate and potentially interesting content is being stifled.

A lot of them are just idiots who post stupid stuff. Hellbanning stops them from creating new accounts.

Of course there are still plenty of them who seem like decent users who got off on the wrong foot.

Killfiles probably wouldn't solve that specific problem But I think they might be more equitable. Maybe if users could spend karma to upvote them out of a hellban?

I feel like I'm a responsible user and someone just didn't like one lighthearted comment I made. It's pretty upsetting actually. It's a shame but, I guess I'll just not post anymore. Will anyone even see this comment?

You appear to be unhellbanned, congrats.

I see your comment gagege. If you decide you want to return to HN, you can create another account.

I would suggest not posting any "jokes" or possibly controversial comments until you have a karma buffer of at least 500 or so.