I participate in a lightly moderated anonymous parenting message board, and many agree it is similar to social media in engendering those unhealthy emotions. I

I participate in a lightly moderated anonymous parenting message board, and many agree it is similar to social media in engendering those unhealthy emotions. I definitely feel HN falls in that category, maybe even old school newsgroups and Reddit. There were definitely flame wars going back to the 90s, so bad behavior has a long history even before Facebook (or MySpace or Friendster).