> IT Communities like Hacker News are full of assholes No they're not. Instead, the communities are full of amazingly helpful and polite individuals, and also

> IT Communities like Hacker News are full of assholes No they're not. Instead, the communities are full of amazingly helpful and polite individuals, and also have a small population of assholes. (Some of the communities. I mean something like Hacker News in particular, not 4chan.) But a small percentage of the participants in those communities are not so helpful, or somehow manage to offend others while providing commentary they think will be helpful. And it only takes a small percentage. The best solution is probably social pressure: speaking up when you see a comment that does not represent the quality of discussion that you want from the community. (But beware the other danger of filling the boards with meta-discussion about what is and isn't and appropriate way to discuss, because that will QUICKLY kill the quality of the community.)