Eric Friedman

How I got banned from Hacker News

I blog over at Marketing.fm and found out recently that my blog has been “blacklisted” from hacker news.

This post is an effort to explain how I got banned and hoping it doesn’t happen to  you.

On December 22nd 2009 I wrote a controversial blog post called “The Business Breakfast”  I wrote it tongue in cheek, but its genesis came from entrepreneurs.  At the time I was working at Union Square Ventures, and talking to a lot of folks who had started companies, or were in the process.  The comments on HN were great and it generate some of the most active discussion on my blog ever.  Never did I get any indication this was a problem post.

This idea came from a group of friends where we casually joked about meetings with “big” investors and angels - and a few people started talking about food and what to order.  They all agreed it was a valuable topic but nobody dared to write about it for fear of getting laughed at and ostracized.  In a world where you are judged on everything - these folks did not want to be the ones who wrote an article about what to order for breakfast….now I understand why.

I have been a recorded member of HN for over 2 years, and a reader for many more.

I wrote and posted an article SPECIFICALLY for the HN community anddiscovered I was blacklisted.  

I emailed PG and we had an exchange about my user account and blog - and he let me know that the post was the last straw.  I am unsure what the other straws were.

I continue to be active on HN and hope to one day see my blog allowed back.

If anyone knows how long a ban lasts or what I can do to fix this situation please let me know.