[swat535]

People on reddit are serious ? Which subs are you following ? All I see everywhere there is one word comments such as @nice, @oof,..etc and witty remarks. The discussion quality on HN is far better. Granted we do nitpick here though..

[doc_gunthrop]

Sure the discussion quality is far better, if you're comparing to reddit in general. Discussion is often on par if you're on a niche subreddit focused on something technical.

From a personal perspective, the discussion quality on HN (on average) has declined over the past couple years. In the past the majority of comments were more substantial; it was more common to see paragraphs of well thought-out comments that delved into nitty gritty details when addressing a point.

But in the past couple years there's been a gradual increase in single-sentence comments that contribute nothing to discussion but only end up taking up screen space. Like the random person who wants to throw in their 2 cents, but have zero cents to offer.

Even HN is not immune to Eternal September.

[dang]

HN has always had that. I think you're running into the perception bias where it always seems like things are getting worse.

Complaints about HN getting more like Reddit go back to 2007, before it was even called Hacker News.