Seems to me the key is topics - it's easier to stay perceptive when discussing Python micro frameworks than the Middle East. When HN started featuring contenti

Seems to me the key is topics - it's easier to stay perceptive when discussing Python micro frameworks than the Middle East. When HN started featuring contentious topics like that, it brought out the judgmental side of people, and later influenced even technical threads. I remember first being impressed by HN when seeing a discussion on some PHP framework that didn't contain any of the inane "PHP sucks" slogans I've gotten used to on Proggit. That impressed me not because of my opinion on PHP, but because it was clear these people deal in building things - a language is a tool for them, not a fashion statement. As more recent PHP-related threads show, that's not the case anymore.