Hey :wave:, I've been on HN for ages too and have seen you here forever. You're not the only one that's observed this behavior. A lot of us know it. The HN crow

Hey :wave:, I've been on HN for ages too and have seen you here forever. You're not the only one that's observed this behavior. A lot of us know it. The HN crowd thinks monetization is this gross, evil thing but also thinks the quality of content is in decline and only caters to the lowbrow. As you say, good writing from good writers (really good content from good creators) needs time, stability, and the safety to explore ideas. All of this requires money. This crowd likes to point out that the early web had this kind of content, but they forget that the early web was composed mostly of perspectives from folks who had those luxuries and honestly had been only writing for a few years on the web. I remember trying in vain to find anything about the rap scene which was huge in my low-income area and in a lot of low-income America at the time but the truth was, none of the rappers who ended up making it in the mid-90s ever were situated in a way that would make it easy for them to use the Web to put their content out there. That's why everyone on the Web at the time was into heavy metal even though rap was flourishing in the US. The demographic that used the Web wore khakis at work and listened to metal at home. I've (and my friends) just learned to ignore this content. It's a yearning for a more country club like internet. The neighborhood was a lot quainter when only the golfers with their luxury cars lived here. Now the riff raff wants to bike or drive their Mustangs and it's all lowest common denominator drivel.