[musicale]

Certain topics seem to be irresistible flamebait, instantly poisoning any online discussion. Without effective moderation they become superweapons for trolls, and bombs that anyone can accidentally or intentionally set off.

Upvote/downvote wars are also ugly.

(And it's not just reddit; I used to enjoy ars technica before its comment section degenerated into flame and downvote wars.)

HN is one of the few exceptions where touching one of these electric rails even in passing doesn't seem to destroy everything good, but it still isn't immune to upvote/downvote wars.

[rl3]

Although HN has had its share of heated discussion, I think it’s especially prone to discussions derailing due to pedantry. It’s a curious, technical crowd and people in general like being right.

I think both sites have groupthink dynamics to a point that isn’t pretty, HN markedly less so but it’s still present. This is likely a byproduct of downvoting having such an outsized effect on comment visibility.