I tend to see the cynicism/ridicule only at first. As comments accumulate it balances out. Overall it is not cynical. I would say it has improved over the ye

I tend to see the cynicism/ridicule only at first. As comments accumulate it balances out. Overall it is not cynical. I would say it has improved over the years actually! Perhaps there's lots of cynics hunched over their keyboard hitting refresh on HN so they can jump in. Who knows?