I think you bumped into something here. I noticed trends over the years in various communities. I personally call it the “proverbial 12 years old” effect. I cam

I think you bumped into something here. I noticed trends over the years in various communities. I personally call it the “proverbial 12 years old” effect. I came up with it when I noticed that on days when school was out that some public fora became a lot more degenerate (trolling, low-effort, accusatory tone, and so on) and often it was noticeable age played a factor. It’s probably wrong to call it that towards the many fine young users on any platform, but there is definitely some correlation. There is also a trend when a social media platform becomes suddenly very popular : not all have the means, the inclination or the ability to be respectful. As others mentioned, training people to be excellent towards one another and forming and following a netiquette takes time, and unfortunately needs to be enforced (even at HN which I feel has a pretty good to high standard for discussions and little tolerance for bad faith disruption)