Comment by goles

If I'm looking for more reading I'll sometimes go back a random number of years to find something from the front page of that day. It struck me a while back that around 8-10 years ago HN comments were way more snippy, pointed, almost needlessly argumentative than today. Not bringing that up to say it was better or worse, but that when people complain about comment quality they are probably different than our collective memory serves.

People also recognized each other far more often, sometimes on a first name basis, which is maybe just a function of growth. It may also behoove someone to pick their words more carefully if someone recognized anothers work 2-3 years after they were nasty to them. Or possibly growing acceptance of throwaways, multiple accounts.

It was pointed out in a comment I really liked a while back that HN demonstrates that one can be critical without being mean. But it also takes effort of the person receiving feedback to understand the one giving is, usually, doing so to help, not tear them down. Which is almost always not the case on Twitter, Instagram, FB, et al. And I've seen very thoughtful, intelligent people say they just don't read comments at all on things they worked on.

If anyone is interested in trying this themselves here is 2016 - https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2016-05-20

2013 - https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2013-05-20

2007 - https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2007-05-20