The quality of comments on the Internet is usually directly related to the tone of the original content. If the content is sensationalistic, antagonistic, or sn

The quality of comments on the Internet is usually directly related to the tone of the original content. If the content is sensationalistic, antagonistic, or snarky you're going to see it reflected in the comments. Sites like TechCrunch, Engadget, Digg, etc show this in action. Then you have a site like HN that is still devoted to serious content where the signal-to-noise ratio for comments is very good.