I came here from Slashdot, after it turned into too much of a cesspool. And HN was a wonderful place. But over a decade, it slowly became less wonderful. More people showed up just to argue, rather than to have curious conversations. More zealots and shills, less thought.
I think what happened is that HN became a place that was worth influencing. Some people decided they'd do that rather than enjoying it for what it was. The more people on HN, the more valuable it was to manipulate, and so the more people did.
So one solution is just to find smaller forums - ones that aren't big enough to be worth trying to manipulate. That doesn't same HN, though. It doesn't get it back to what I loved.
Smaller forums.
I came here from Slashdot, after it turned into too much of a cesspool. And HN was a wonderful place. But over a decade, it slowly became less wonderful. More people showed up just to argue, rather than to have curious conversations. More zealots and shills, less thought.
I think what happened is that HN became a place that was worth influencing. Some people decided they'd do that rather than enjoying it for what it was. The more people on HN, the more valuable it was to manipulate, and so the more people did.
So one solution is just to find smaller forums - ones that aren't big enough to be worth trying to manipulate. That doesn't same HN, though. It doesn't get it back to what I loved.