[atian]

It’s a sanity check. Can we afford to not do X? because thank God there is some commonality in disgust. Clearly not at the moment, but I doubt even the original authors of those comments care more than you do.

It’s a feature and not a bug.

[0x0nyandesu]

The people insisting on this just want to use HN as their megaphone. There is no debate. They have already made up their minds.

It comes off about as well as an insufferable teenager at Thanksgiving dinner. Some feature.

[modeless]

I mean, that's 99% of internet comments. There are many topics I disagree with the HN majority (or vocal minority) on, and it becomes tiresome to see the same old stuff rehashed in every article when it's mostly off topic. But if we didn't allow people to comment unless they were genuinely open to having their mind changed about something, there would be no comments.

If you debate someone on the internet, you will never change their mind. But you might influence the opinion of someone else who reads your comments, and that's the best you can hope for.

Also, when a large number of people are wrong about something, there is often an opportunity of some kind associated with that. An investing opportunity, a career opportunity, a startup opportunity. When you see what others don't it can be a big advantage. So, embrace it.

[ErikVandeWater]

You said in your first comment it "devolves into a debate." Now you're saying there is no debate. Poor consistency/word choice also lowers the value of HN discussion.

[0x0nyandesu]

Person A: this is not a good venue to have a debate.

Person B: yes it is

debate ensues

Person B: I thought you were against debates.

Picard facepalm

You know I dated someone with bipolar disorder once. It went exactly like this. It's funny that HN threads exhibit the same behaviors.

[ErikVandeWater]

Comedy at its finest! You've cast yourself as the person arguing that HN is a poor place for debates.