I think if we use the "should be expected" idea to excuse bad discourse then bad discourse will consistently win. The issues most worth discussing are usually t

I think if we use the "should be expected" idea to excuse bad discourse then bad discourse will consistently win. The issues most worth discussing are usually the most controversial ones after all. The only reason I made this comment is because as HN has been getting a lot bigger post-2022 Reddit API changes, I've been noticing a lot more low effort rage/engagement bait in the comments. The mods here have added the "Don't be curmudgeonly" guideline recently to combat this trend but I think the bait is really degrading the quality of conversation here to the point where this might as well just be any old generic comments section on the net. At some point HN falls into the same problem that every newspaper comments section, Reddit, and Nextdoor fell into: farming ragebait for approval removes the incentives needed for quality discourse and crowds non-ragebait out. I think some of this too is that the right now HN is growing faster than the mod team can deal with the comments. I think it's largely a losing battle, but I'll try because I've spent too much on this site to not try. But I will be honest I am spending a lot less time here because of this decrease in quality. (I'm also cognizant that I broke an HN guideline, namely "Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.")