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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

"Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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There has really been a dramatic shift on HN in the last couple of years.

I'm not so sure. There were lots of bad posts in the past, as well. A lot of these perceptions boil down to sample bias (e.g. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), plus nostalgia bias (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). Then there is the question of macro trends in society at large, which no site can expect to be immune from (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). What does it all add up to? I don't know. It's a complex situation with more than enough datapoints to accommodate whatever pattern people want to project into it (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).

Is it possible you have conditioned yourself through the years of needing to reflexively post these kinds of replies? I took a break from HN when I took a break from all the things associated with the industry over the last couple of years, and this place has changed (as have I, but of course that's a tautology, because the only constant is change).

Indeed it's possible. I ask myself the question every day. On the other hand, I spend more time observing this place than anyone else—at least I hope more than anyone else, since I'm the only one being paid to do so. That's got to count for something too.

What does that add up to? I don't know, and I don't suppose anyone else does. It's dwarfed by the margin of error.

> On the other hand, I spend more time observing this place than anyone else—at least I hope more than anyone else, since I'm the only one being paid to do so.

You may knowably be the only person being paid by YC to do so, but generalizing that further seems to be on shakier ground.

Good point! (Also, I'm not the only person that YC pays to moderate HN. I meant something a bit different but it's not that important.)

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