A problem with HN is that the rules essentially incentivise this behaviour: if you simply think something is good, you cannot say so until someone else said it

A problem with HN is that the rules essentially incentivise this behaviour: if you simply think something is good, you cannot say so until someone else said it was not. “This is great “ is not a good comment. So people upvote instead. But scores are hidden , so you can’t see that from the outside. you can see this effect in action on your own posts : 10 upvotes, 1 critique. From the outside however, it just looks like “HN is at it again!” Sure, people could say “this is good because X”, just as they should with critique , anyway. But that’s not how we think : it’s easier to motivate why you don’t like something than why you do. I think HN is much more positive than it seems. We just need to find a way to stop hiding it.