You realize this site is run by a venture capital firm and startup accelerator whose alumni include companies like Flock and Delve, right?

There's always been a good bit of tension here between the YC founders and the people who work in the industry. I was banned for comments about PG ten years ago. Neither VC nor workers here are unaware of the consequences of widespread apathy. My disappointment is with one side of that argument capitulating or acting as if the principle is lost, or perhaps being too uneducated and ignorant to state the case.

The VC around here loses more than we do if HN ceases to be a useful barometer.

> I was banned for comments about PG ten years ago.

Where was that? I'd like to see a link, because this doesn't sound right to me. I was running HN 10 years ago, and it has never been a practice to ban people for "comments about PG".

We ban accounts that repeatedly break the site guidelines, including with personal attacks, but that is not a question of who the person is—it's a question of how badly they've broken the rules. Also, if the person is connected to YC, that would make us a little less likely to ban them, by the principle described here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu....

It's no less true, though. I'm sure there is a cohort of HN folks who don't have or maintain a social media account (either any more, or ever), there are likely many more that do.