This is only true for people who care about "Internet points". As others have pointed out, there are many other metrics. Number of lives you positively affect

This is only true for people who care about "Internet points". As others have pointed out, there are many other metrics. Number of lives you positively affect, for those of us who work in large-scale projects. Dollar bills for those who choose to get paid. Recognition by peers for those who choose to publish papers/reviewed articles. And to be completely trite, "you get back what you put in". If all HN is to you is a place to collect Internet points, yeah, that's pretty shallow. If you think it's a place where you can have interesting discussions with people with similar interests, it's a completely different kettle of fish. I'm not here for my karma points, I'm here because I occasionally enjoy the discussions. (And I comment because I wait for my compiler ;)