I don't think there is a single definition for the health of a community. The leaders of the community define what their goals are, and based on that health can

I don't think there is a single definition for the health of a community. The leaders of the community define what their goals are, and based on that health can be assessed. For HN that is things like high quality, technically oriented links & discussions, as well as minimization of things like noise, spam, clickbait, trolling or flaming. I think on those metrics HN does pretty well. Obviously not perfect, things fall through the cracks all the time, but way better than other communities that strive for the same thing. I don't remember how I originally got into HN, but what drives me to stay is alignment in goals. I _want_ the things HN is optimizing for.