Comment by abcd_f
2 days ago
You can see a form of this effect on HN itself, in particular in Show HN topics.
First few comments basically set the tone of the discussion and its dynamic. If they are shallow, negative or dismissive, the discussion gets stuck and takes a while to recover even if the submission has a lot of actual merit.
On the other hand it can recover. I am not going back to reading sequential pages on a forum. Good enough until something better comes along.
Similar with stackoverflow. A question with an answer is already uninteresting to other contributora, but if the answer is superficial or of bad quality on top of that, it lowers the chances of a good second answer dramatically.
This is from personal experience, not from any study, so take it with a ton of salt.