I think "debate" is the key feature of HN (indeed, most online discourse) that the author has identified. It's easy to base a comment on a flaw in an article,

I think "debate" is the key feature of HN (indeed, most online discourse) that the author has identified. It's easy to base a comment on a flaw in an article, or someone else's comment on the article, so HN discussions can seem very contrarian, almost adversarial. Randall Munroe may have said it best with his "Duty Calls" comic: https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/