If your account is new i.e. Green there are triggers that can cause submissions to be auto-dead. If you open a different browser or private tab that is not logged in you can see if your comment or submission is shown to the public. People with show-dead enabled would still see your comments and submissions.
As mentioned in the sibling comment, reaching out to the moderator is the best way to figure it out.
Update: the thread seems to have fallen off the Ask HN page very quickly so there does seem to be some penalty applied.