I do think HN is less toxic than I'd otherwise expect it to be, and I attribute it to the very good moderation. The rules of conduct are pretty simple and desi

I do think HN is less toxic than I'd otherwise expect it to be, and I attribute it to the very good moderation. The rules of conduct are pretty simple and designed to promote non-toxic discussion, and I'm impressed with them. I recently got gently chided for "one of those grandiose sweeping claims that internet commenters love to make but can never back up" and was forced to see that dang was right, and that he was operating on a solid principle. And I really do love HN for its ability to cut through bullshit. I frequently see topics and look at the top comment or two before even reading the article, because I know HN can be counted on to cut to the substance a high percentage of the time. Clickbaity titles are reduced to TLDRs. Headlines ending in question marks are reduced to "yes" or "no" inside of one comment. Security exploits are often boiled down to how it works very quickly. The scrutiny this community adds to random tech jibber-jabber is frequently a really big time-saver. On the other hand, while HN avoids some of the shit-show type of discourse that tends to happen on these types of forums, it does definitely have its own set of very predictable patterns that I'm starting to get really tired of: * "Why would you want to do this?" when the point of the post is a fun exercise * Rust bashing, go bashing, rust zealotry, go zealotry * Downvoting things because you simply disagree * Smart people assuming that because they have always been able to reason their way through most technical subjects, that they can reason through social, political, and legal subjects without any real direct experience, because they're smart. Results in declaring simple answers to complex problems such as housing, healthcare, drug policy, education, the law, etc etc. Simple answers abound. This one is endemic on most discussion sites, and here at least both sides get to talk, but the scarcity of people admitting they don't know all the answers is ... exhausting. * edit: not having proper bullet lists :)