I'll admit I saw this bit in the HN guidelines previously. I finally said something on this topic anyways, because I've seen other commenters also point out the

I'll admit I saw this bit in the HN guidelines previously. I finally said something on this topic anyways, because I've seen other commenters also point out the same in other citylab discussions recently, and feel it is a problem in the community. The voting mechanisms here makes discussions less diverse. I'm especially not fond of the feature where downvoted comments are marked 'dead' or have their font color changed to make them less readable. Leaving aside the obvious accessibility concerns, it leads to echo chambers, just with a slower degradation rate than say Twitter or Reddit.