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I agree, but I'd go further and say commenting here is largely a waste of time. If you make a comment on r/programming, others will respond and you can have a r

I agree, but I'd go further and say commenting here is largely a waste of time. If you make a comment on r/programming, others will respond and you can have a reasoned discussion, with trolls getting downvoted. If you disagree with someone, you can state your position and others will jump in and state theirs. Responses on HN are generally few in number, and if you challenge a high karma user, he and a few of his friends will downvote you with no intelligent discussion. I'd say the comment system here has resulted in a pissing contest where the goal is to say something really cute so that you get upvotes. There are good discussions, but they happen in spite of the comment system, not because of it.

scrollaway 10y ago
Funny, I'd say the exact same thing with the variables reversed. Commenting on reddit is a waste of time. Here however, fresh comments actually get promoted to the top very regularly, which gives them a chance to be seen. I much prefer the ranking here than on Reddit.
nkurz 10y ago
When I look at the dead and grayed out comments (you can turn on "showdead" in your profile to see the dead ones), I usually consider them to be lower quality than the comments that have not been downvoted and flagged. Do you feel otherwise? If so, could you link to some examples?
uola 10y ago
I've heard from multiple people who had their projects (software, electronics, organizations) make the rounds in online communities that HN was the worst experience.