4chan and Youtube comments are part of the internet. The ghetto parts, to be specific. The 4chan-style scum and villainy gets concentrated at 4chan, the Youtube-style tomfoolery stays on Youtube, and the rest of us can sit in our small splinter forums and have discussions without somebody yelling about how 9/11 was an inside job (WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!) or posting pictures of naked underage anime characters. There have always been a bunch of people in the world that you'd rather not live near, and it's the same way on the internet.

The real internet isn't HN, but it's also not 4chan or Youtube. The real internet is the internet -- the whole internet. Tautological but true. As long as there's always some readily-accessible part of the internet without troll problems, then I'd say we're doing okay.

The real progress, though, would be figuring out how those civilized parts of the internet can stay civilized. Some forums have a small population. Some forums have a strong sense of community and ban-happy moderators. Some forums have downvoting, although that doesn't seem to stop persistent trolls. If you've got a better way, discussing it would be fun.