Power without transparency inevitably leads to power that is abused. In the west we have built our civil systems around that theory.
What are we risking by not having this transparency on HN? By not having transparency on what accounts are banned, and why? Only the value of the discourse that occurs here.
If the value of the communications that happen here is high enough, our interest in having protections for that communication should be just as high.
If the value of this discourse is low, why are we putting on airs and pretending we need harsh measures, such as slowbanning, to protect it?
Sooner or later, any human, even one as benevolent as pg, will abuse their power over others. We need access to the reasons that accounts are secretly banned or slowbanned, so that we can pressure moderators (or whoever has that power) to wield the punishments fairly, and petition for unfair punishments to be reversed.
"Power without transparency inevitably leads to power that is abused" is true only for some value of "inevitably". You can have a benevolent dictator; you can't have three consecutive benevolent dictators. So long as we don't expect HN to outlive pg, we don't need to be all that concerned about serious abuse. The question is whether the cost of potential abuse is greater than the cost of trolls being able to create new accounts when they get banned.
What are we risking by not having this transparency on HN? By not having transparency on what accounts are banned, and why? Only the value of the discourse that occurs here.
If the value of the communications that happen here is high enough, our interest in having protections for that communication should be just as high.
If the value of this discourse is low, why are we putting on airs and pretending we need harsh measures, such as slowbanning, to protect it?
Sooner or later, any human, even one as benevolent as pg, will abuse their power over others. We need access to the reasons that accounts are secretly banned or slowbanned, so that we can pressure moderators (or whoever has that power) to wield the punishments fairly, and petition for unfair punishments to be reversed.