New accounts are already subject to extra restrictions. I'm reluctant to raise that bar. I fear the risk of excluding legit newcomers more than spammers and trolls, who are ever with us.
> throwaway green accounts for drive-by snarky comments, spam, astro-turfing, etc
User flags on such posts are extremely helpful. They help by downranking and/or killing bad posts, but even more by providing a high-value signal for software to classify future posts. When you flag posts like that, you're not just cleaning litter off one city block, you're training the street system to deal with future litter automatically.
This only works to some extent (bad actors will always create new accounts), but the extent is considerable. If you care about HN, it's a valuable way to contribute.
I'll add to this: for truly egregious or prolific abusers (spam, misbehaviour, etc.), both flag and then email the mods at hn@ycombinator.com
(You don't need to do this for garden-variety stuff, but if you see something going above and beyond, it can help.)
I've done this many, many, many times, on all manner of issues. Dang almost always responds within an hour or so, rarely more than a day. Quite often the issue's already been dealt with, either automatically (HN's more complex than it appears), or by mod intervention. Occasionally (and increasingly since I've tightened my own criteria for reporting) I seem to be reporting unrecognised abuse. That's not because the abuse is more common, but because I'm reporting issues less frequently and after additional checks, e.g., looking for previous mod admonisments.
You can check for this past history using the "replies" endpoint, which can show where a particular profile's had direct responses from dang. For myself, e.g.:
Keep reports brief and specific. Link directly to relevant content or profile(s) within the body. If you're reporting on content, include the content ID in the email subject as this apparently makes processing reports much easier.
E.g., the content ID for dang's comment above, URL:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42570159
Is "42570159" (the digits at the end of the URL).
You'll find similar contentIDs on all submissions and comments.
> throwaway green accounts for drive-by snarky comments, spam, astro-turfing, etc
User flags on such posts are extremely helpful. They help by downranking and/or killing bad posts, but even more by providing a high-value signal for software to classify future posts. When you flag posts like that, you're not just cleaning litter off one city block, you're training the street system to deal with future litter automatically.
This only works to some extent (bad actors will always create new accounts), but the extent is considerable. If you care about HN, it's a valuable way to contribute.