Ah. I like this response the best so far. It's not reactive and I feel genuinely informed. I certainly understand the fear of the community degrading and I wou

Ah. I like this response the best so far. It's not reactive and I feel genuinely informed. I certainly understand the fear of the community degrading and I wouldn't want HN to be like Reddit/Slashdot at all. But there is an interesting unspoken undercurrent also on HN. Which is that it's the community for the sophisticated, intelligent hacker (and it certainly is that). What remains unsaid though is that there's a certain uptightedness (sometimes) that people can't break out of. It may just come with the territory of very smart people. I tend to find HN the best community for programmers on the web. Loads of smart people on here. But smart people have a hard time not taking themselves seriously, and when people try to point that out, I've noticed a trend where the elders put the kibosh on those individuals. It's true that the trolls should not be fed, but many trolls are actually just pointing out what's real and getting burned for it. Like an "Emperor's New Clothes" situation. In any case, thank you for your thoughtful reply.