I would applaud any effort to make comment-killing and user-banning a more transparent process on HN.  You don't know it happens when it happens, it's often for a shaky reason, and there is no place to discuss it other than emailing PG (which just seems wasteful, a feeling that was reinforced by PG's very curt tone throughout).<p>When seeking assistance for a hellban of my very own, I was emailed by several helpful HN power users, all giving basically the same opinion -- "The HN moderation is capricious and deaf", in one user's words.  That's an uncomfortable assessment from regular site contributors.