&gt; <i>I&#x27;ve been hellbanned apparently</i><p>No, by definition that&#x27;s banning someone without telling them, and we told you: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10545474" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10545474</a>.<p>Pretty much the only accounts that we ban without telling them are brand new ones that are spamming or trolling. If a user has any real history here, we tell them that they&#x27;re banned, and there&#x27;s a standing invitation for anyone who sincerely intends to improve their behavior on the site to email us and get unbanned. There&#x27;s also now a mechanism—as other users have explained in this thread—for comments by banned users to get restored by the community on a case-by-case basis.<p>We&#x27;re thinking of abolishing shadow-banning altogether and making a big announcement that we&#x27;ve done so, because there&#x27;s still a lot of misunderstanding around this, and we barely do it anyway. But I don&#x27;t like to make any big change without first letting it simmer a long time. It&#x27;s simmering.