That is true, but it's also been my experience that better discussion happens in smaller forums. Whether that's usenet, reddit, or HN, when it's new, you feel l

That is true, but it's also been my experience that better discussion happens in smaller forums. Whether that's usenet, reddit, or HN, when it's new, you feel like you're speaking to a small group of people vs. shouting in a large room. The quality of discussion on HN have dropped over time and a large part of that feels like that with more people trying to get their opinions heard, there's a lot of interesting opinions that are missed. Just look at the difference in upvotes between early posts and later mid-thread discussions, if you use that as a proxy for readership, there's a lot less people engaged because conversations get harder to follow and it's not easy to identify conversations that are new to you.