By the way:
> Don't be snarky.
> Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
So while it seems that I am ideologically much more aligned with you, I am still annoyed by the unecessary irony and uninteresting comment about whatever you think HN is/has become.
So I guess my question to you is what do you think is not working in the current system ? I am arguing that it's working fine: The half crazy person's comments are so faint I can't even read them, or [dead]
You have a point that the downvotes and flags do their work. That's pretty much banning. After they call a few more people homophobic slurs or insult their families, they'll probably be shadowbanned.
>On what criteria will you recognize bad actors?
Constant dodging of questions, shifting goalposts with aggressive language, personal insults, and so on. Signalled by being repeatedly downvoted or flagged for such behavior.
We're probably on a similar page, but I am slightly less concerned with censorship. Three week old accounts that have done little but troll have less "plot armor" than established accounts.
I'm not going to ban you because it doesn't look like you've been doing this routinely, but you broke the site guidelines badly in this thread, and it has been a problem in the past (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39598850)
If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
I don't tend to back down when there is someone trying to destroy what this site is. Trolls are the worst.
Hey, once a year isn't so bad.
(It's difficult, I know, and I struggle with that myself. HN's "collapse thread" feature (the [-] on the comment link) is useful should conscious effort prove frail.)