I hear you. All I can say is that I feel like I went through a similar struggle, and ultimately had to accept that HN now consists of millions of people. Just

I hear you. All I can say is that I feel like I went through a similar struggle, and ultimately had to accept that HN now consists of millions of people. Just from a logical standpoint, it's not realistic to expect that all viewpoints will be welcomed by all people, no matter how they're expressed. If you game it out, the outcome is that either we all get along with each other, or the place burns down. You might think that's hyperbole, but HN walks a delicate tightrope -- pretty much zero social networks from 2001 stayed relevant in 2021. So it'd be very possible to blink twice and wake up a decade later and wonder "Where did HN go?" That, more than any other, is the defining struggle of the community; particularly as it continues to grow. The problem with expressing my feelings was that I pretty much always did it because it felt good, rather than because I was trying to help someone else. Eventually I came to realize that this was both selfish and unproductive, so I tried to change habits. And I still fall back into the old ways sometimes, though the last couple years have been a marked improvement. Ask yourself: What benefit is there from expressing your feelings? I hate to phrase it like that, but it was an uncomfortable truth that I was always reluctant to face. Perhaps you know of a benefit that I overlooked. If so, I'd appreciate hearing it. Ultimately I just had to stomach the fact that if I wanted to participate, I'd need to face "the community" as it is: a collection of people looking to pass the time and amuse themselves. It's nothing more and nothing less. The implications of that pretty much shattered my existing worldview, because I had to face the fact that no, the community isn't here to find some sort of enlightened viewpoint, and no, no one is going to care about me personally. Which meant that if I acted in selfish ways, no one would gain a thing -- all it would do is upset people to varying degrees. Particularly myself. I ended up happier by caring less about myself and more about the people I was talking to. I don't know if it would work for others. But you seemed sad that the community was letting you down, as I once felt, so I wanted to at least try to reframe the problem as a matter of perspective. I see you've been around HN since 2008. For what it's worth, so have I. It's really hard to let go of the old community. But we have no choice; we now live awash in an ocean of people, and those original ~5,000 commenters in 2008 may as well be tiny islands. We're still here as individuals. But if you're hoping "the community" is going to feel this way or that way, well... That path only ended with a sort of bitterness that I was happy to leave behind. Perhaps you'll find a different way out.