Comment by cousin_it
6 years ago
People with high knowledge about math don't get into low-quality interactions about math, no matter the medium. They'll find a way to make it informative. If an interaction is not informative, it's always because one or both participants don't know their stuff.
Moderation is important, but it solves a different problem: letting people who don't know their stuff also participate and benefit without destroying everything.
IANA expert in social interactions but...
To me it seems like people with a high-quality knowledge can definitely still get into low-quality interactions, even when it's about a subject they know inside and out.
Lets say we have two hypothetical mathematicians who both know more math than the average person. They are both _very_ proud about the amount of math they know. They happen to bump into each other in a discussion about $INTERESTING_THEORY (I don't know enough math to know what this would be). They each pick opposing sides in this discussion, and each become more and more nonplussed with the others opinion, eventually derailing the conversation and devolving into a flame war.
Maybe the average person is nicer/more focused on maintaining a useful conversation than I think, but I have observed this pattern to many times to think it doesn't show up. That being said, I haven't seen it very often on HN, so there's evidence for your point still.