I agree - something has substantially changed about the tone and nature of comments in the past year(s). Humor is underappreciated. Self-deprecating humor in pa

I agree - something has substantially changed about the tone and nature of comments in the past year(s). Humor is underappreciated. Self-deprecating humor in particular is useful for humility and being open to new ideas as well as being open to being proven wrong. Overall posting and comment volume has decreased from my observation as well, so a smaller number of comments tend to dominate, which contributes to the overall perception that you've noted above.