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Comment by meritt | Hacker News Reader

They have, overwhelmingly. The problem is it's an anonymous platform and bans are irrelevant for most internet users today. This was all nicely summarized by John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in 2004.

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Was not familiar with the theory - I disagree with it. This site is a wonderful example of the opposite. My experience with reddit (6+ year old account, at this point) is that, just like in life, most people on reddit are fine. The illusion of toxicity comes from a large vocal minority.

HN isn't really. Take any thread which talks politics and you'll notice it gets flagged, removed very quickly. HN works because it's heavily moderated. It's the equivalent of "No politics discussion!" instilled by many American families over this Thanksgiving.

Even with the tech topics: Try talking about the positives of PHP and you'll also see this community has a lot of hostility beneath the surface.

HN has made me leave several times for being so god damned ridiculous. We're not special. Wander into any Apple, Google, or Microsoft thread and watch the idiocy. Or anything to do with poliics (not even US politics, I've seen so many flame wars about countries I didn't even know existed).

Pardon, I should have been clearer - ban the subreddit.

I think they wish they could but are avoiding doing that if they can due to the (much more) immense backlash that would ensue. Which seems, well, reasonable to me.

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