Yeah it is an instant recipe for being downvoted. :-(
As it should. Empty comments posted for the giggles of author (and maybe a few others) would just add too much spam.
Look at what reddit grew into, you have templates of comments and meta comments everywhere, very low quality content.
An appropriate HN comment: "Shouldn't that be 'April Fool's day"? ... [long thread about whether singular or plural]
Reddit still has plenty of high quality content, even with the jokes and meta-commentary. And much of the humorless content on HN isn't exactly high quality.
Indeed, the humorlessness of this place tends to encourage tedious pedantry and vindictive sniping.
Totally agree. I feel its too hard to strike a balance between the two.
I like humor, it's just especially rare to see it here. We put up with plenty of other stuff that I consider spam but is clearly of interest to others here.