You've sent us hundreds of emails using many accounts. We responded to all of them until it became obvious that it was only energizing the problem, and even then never stopped responding completely.

This is simply not true. I haven't sent you "hundreds of emails", nor have I sent them from "many accounts" except when the conversation was related to those accounts.

Here is one of the most recent emails I sent you, which got no reply:

===

Hello,

Hellbanned users can’t submit any stories if they’ve made any comments in the last 3 hours.

Here’s a patch to fix that:

(def oversubmitting (user ip kind (o url))
(and enforce-oversubmit*
(or (check-key user 'toofast)
(ignored user)
(< (user-age user) new-age-threshold)
(< (karma user) new-karma-threshold))
- (len> (recent-items [or (author user _) (is _!ip ip)] 180)
+ (len> (keep [is _!type kind]
+ (recent-items [or (author user _) (is _!ip ip)] 180))
(if (is kind 'story)
(if (bad-user user) 0 1)
(if (bad-user user) 1 10)))))

I was hoping you’d apply this, so that I can submit stories even if I’ve made a comment.

===

Here's another:

Dan,

I would like to try, once more, to make an offer of peace and to see eye to eye.

I am willing to write solely about programming topics on HN. I believe this is what you meant by “use the site for its intended purpose.”

What I'm experiencing now, you’ll do to others. I would not have believed this if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.

HN may be an entertainment site, but it was the only place in the world that I could find like-minded people to talk openly with. It's as dear to me as your childhood home is to you. And if you’re going to wipe someone’s 11-year presence and continue to falsely claim that I can still participate on the site, then there is little choice other than to write about this for whoever will listen. After all, it is the only option left.

Please note that I respect your opinion greatly. The entire community looks to you for guidance. At one time, so did I. My first interaction with you was when I was going through a distressing period in my life, and I randomly sent an email to hn@ycombinator.com. You returned the email with a wonderful reply that gave me hope for the future.

I have no idea what happened between then and now. I have done what little I could to assist, where possible. I don’t want to cause problems. But if you’re going to go full Game of Thrones on me and continue to claim you’ve explained why – and that it’s not personal, which it clearly seems to be – then what else is there to say? You seem intent on escalating this for reasons I simply do not understand. Your 3-month ban was swift, harsh, and arbitrary.

I would like to de-escalate and meet in the middle. Would you?

Shawn

====

No reply.

These are not cherry-picked examples.

The entire reason you applied a penalty in the first place was because I talked in a way that you personally disagreed with about a politically-charged topic. Yet my comment wasn't charged: I was merely stating an opinion. An opinion that you personally did not like. And so you applied a rate limit, once again, which I've had to deal with for nearly a year of my life.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18012416

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18054259

You are coming very close to straight up lying in this thread. I suggest you not do that.