Facebook is a really good example of how sites can just grow on grift and negativity, then clamp down on it later. There was a time when the FB feed was overwhe

Facebook is a really good example of how sites can just grow on grift and negativity, then clamp down on it later. There was a time when the FB feed was overwhelmingly "help me water my crops in Farmville". Zynga became a unicorn and was eventually pushed off FB, but they're still making good money today, happy endings for all. Fake news and unpopular opinions were also really big at one time. FB killed them, mostly by adjusting visibility of some posts more than others or burying the unreliable sites. It's also why people post links in comments though. HN is a little different though - everyone shares the same "feed". Most social media show you what it thinks you want to hear. Whatever goes viral on HN is the same for everyone else. So you're also likely to be sitting next to someone with a political opinion you abhor. There's silent downvotes on certain trigger words, but in a sense that works too, because people just avoid topics that the community doesn't like. I feel like Ask HN is also a vent for negativity, while Show HN is a vent for optimism and self-promotion.