That's an interesting question. I think HN has its good and its bad sides. What I like about HN is the (usually) high quality of discussion. You're likely not

That's an interesting question. I think HN has its good and its bad sides. What I like about HN is the (usually) high quality of discussion. You're likely not gonna get hit with insults or low blows or trolling on this site. I think this is in part due to the great moderation (I always wonder how they're able to pull that off so well with so little staff) but it's also manifested in the culture here. Commenting on HN just feels different than on Twitter, for example. I've also noticed that I act differently on HN compared to other circles that I'm in. Like, VERY different. On HN, people (me including) share way less details about themselves and their emotions (from what I've seen - I'm not a credible source for data), to the point where it sometimes feels like you're talking to a bunch of robots. Compare that to Twitter: I'm mostly just on Twitter to follow people I relate to for their portrayal of character online (be it real or staged). I'm also more open to show my own emotions on Twitter (though that has its limits as well). However, I wouldn't engage in a serious discussion on Twitter or use it as a source of information. Generally I don't think HN really has a concept of "community". It's just a place where a lot of information is flung around and people (mostly serious and professional) come to talk about it but you don't really form "bonds" or "networks" on HN. I mean, sometimes you don't even read the name of the person you're replying to. That's why I like to think of it as "the least social network". I don't take it too seriously either. Like okay, maybe HN has moved the needle in the real world sometimes but I think most of the discussion here doesn't have a real impact other than that we're entertained for the moment. (Though it would be interesting to see an analysis of what HN has or might have done in the real world.) Therefore I also sometimes see it as a bit of a "roleplay" where you act in a fancy way just for fun. Like, I'm not trying to mock anyone, I say exactly what I would say IRL, just in a more formal and correct manner and I think it's nice to do that occasionally but I don't know why. I'd like to know what others on this site think about that. All in all, I don't know. There's a lot more to the question if a site is "healthy" I think and in the end it greatly depends on the receiver. HN also has a couple of mannerisms that could make it a bad experience for some, like strongly favoring some concepts and technologies while being extremely pessimistic on the rest. I'm glad there is something like HN but I think it could be a bit more open (to new ideas, different views, etc.) and, for the lack of a better word, human. Addendum: While writing this I had the idea that Hacker News is filled with an equal amount of humans and (actual) robots and the humans are trained to be more robotic while the robots are trained to be more human, to prepare the singularity. That could make for an interesting novel.