zlacker

Is it OK to mention it when it appears that a poster is spamming paywalled content for a specific site? For example, this guy [1] stopped posting altogether almost immediately after I politely pointed out the sheer volume of paywalled WSJ articles he was posting [2]. It isn't inconceivable that this account (and many others) were created solely to spam paywalled content to HN. If we are forbidden from mentioning such things, I think we are going to have a problem around here with many more attempts by paywalled sites to exploit HN.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=abetaha

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9641922

>>downan+(OP)
Sure, that's such a special case that I don't see why it would be a problem. You can also email us (hn@ycombinator.com) when an account is using HN solely to promote a particular site. If we can email them, we often ask people not to do that. And in egregious cases we take away submission privileges.

>>downan+(OP)
People out to promote one specific site can happen regardless of if the site has a paywall. Someone could always promote one specific ad supported site as well.