This is the real problem. None of the other conspiracy theories, "Google is evil", profit-based claims, etc. are the cause. The problem is that people are horrible, awful, disgusting monsters, and letting them communicate on the Internet in public forums is a terrible idea.
HN is literally the only public forum I use, and only because it's small enough and obscure enough that most of the trolls stay away, and a couple moderators can keep it usable.
Yahoo removed comments, ridding the world of one of the larger cesspools. Reddit's entire raison d'être is to serve as a fetid pool of the worst the Internet has to offer.
We can't have nice things because we don't deserve nice things.
HN is literally the only public forum I use, and only because it's small enough and obscure enough that most of the trolls stay away, and a couple moderators can keep it usable.
Yahoo removed comments, ridding the world of one of the larger cesspools. Reddit's entire raison d'être is to serve as a fetid pool of the worst the Internet has to offer.
We can't have nice things because we don't deserve nice things.