Now I feel the same about HN. I know a decent amount about this topic - and the comments on this article are a dumpster fire so far.
Hot take after hot take from people who didn’t understand the article, but act as if they did.
Is the rest of HN like this, too?
Do you have something to say about the article? You said you know a lot about the topic.
I can see fairly clearly, and some of that is due to psychoanalysis that nearly killed me. Another very closely related psych truism is that there are hidden influences lurking below your conscious perception, and often another level below that. Most people reject that notion (obviously, they can't see it) and some get angry (that's often a defense against finding that which is hidden).
When you see the dumpster fire here, it's the dumpster in their heads that they're not even aware of manifesting in the comments.
Where you see a dumpster fire, I see life experience. Hiring and management is in fact one of the topics that HN is quite good at.
I check https://news.ycombinator.com/classic rather than the front page.
I have noticed that, in the last 6 months or so, more low-quality comments get voted to the first page on HN posts than before. It feels like a new Eternal September. I spend more of my downvotes on distracting reddit-style comments than on incorrect posts. Is my change in downvoting behavior contributing to the decline?
>I spend more of my downvotes on distracting reddit-style comments than on incorrect posts. Is my change in downvoting behavior contributing to the decline?
I don't think so. I can't downvote yet, but that's how I imagine I'll use the feature too. It warms my heart seeing most "reddit-style" (I'd argue some are twitter-style too) comments so heavily downvoted, as they are usually the exact opposite of thoughtful. It's nice to know, or at least feel like, there is a silent majority of users here that can stick to the rules even when a thread gets super divisive.
What I like about HN is that very often misunderstandings that initially seem believable get corrected with sources and explanation.
There are certainly topics where the median level of discourse on HN doesn't approach the professional level of understanding (advertising is the one I notice) but that's true of any broad community. The overall level of discourse and knowledge on here is high regardless.