Those threads weren't particularly active. They aren't even the most active threads in the last month: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix

Those threads weren't particularly active. They aren't even the most active threads in the last month: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=true&query=&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=tr... That said, I can't claim that those threads didn't have more readers than other threads. But I can't say they they did either. It also seems uniquely interesting that some people experienced the slowness but others did not.