[yoha]

I do not feel like the hivemind effect is stronger on Hacker News than on e.g. /r/programming, and definitely lower than on default subreddits.

My main gripe about Reddit is the sheer amount of low-value comments, with repeated remarks, jokes and puns trumping constructed and sourced arguments. It is obviously hard to find a good compromise.

[Grishnakh]

Well one thing you have to remember about Reddit is that every subreddit is basically a totally different forum, with different moderators, different rules to an extent, and a totally different crowd. The people who hang out on /r/Linux are not likely to be the same people who hang out on /r/Windows for instance, and there's plenty of subreddits that don't cater to tech crowds much at all. So what gets modded up or down will vary wildly from subreddit to subreddit.

But I definitely do feel the hivemind effect is greater here, at least in my personal experience (however I do not frequent /r/programming so I can't speak for that subreddit specifically). I constantly see posts down-modded here for no good reason, other than that someone doesn't like them because they go against the viewpoint of the elites here. I feel this is inevitable where you have a system where some people are "more equal" than others, as it is here. It might seem better in one way, with fewer "low-value comments" and jokes and memes and such, but it also turns into an echo chamber with misfits forced out.