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I'm betting this is a joke - as 'xdrthgcv' user account was created 8 minutes before this post.

Also, it makes no sense. The F5 key doesn't initiate remote functions - unless HN is coded to, which doesn't seem logical.

To be fair, the created 8 minute ago makes sense if his account was banned.

It bans your IP, not your account.

F5 is refresh. If you make too many HTTP requests HN bans your IP for aggressive web crawling. (As I understand it.)

As for 3 seconds being enough, shrug. Not something I feel like testing.

There's an un-ban page somewhere around here. PG posted it because he figured out that the problem exists.

Keep in mind, this will only work once.

Ah, well, that explains why the unban isn't working. Didn't know it was one time only.

Fair - good catch. It was early and I missed the refresh.