[thrdbndndn]

I have the same problem too.

To me, Hacker News has the best demographics for such discussions (more mature, less recurring jokes, and more importantly most of people here are in good faith), BUT discussion type threads are very unpopular here compared to news-based thread: you can barely get any replies.

[playingalong]

Maybe it's a sign the folks with HN demographics are not into discussions?

[nnurmanov]

These are the same people (I believe) who discusses post on Reddit or Twitter. I'd rather think that it is because UX, algorithms or other thing which is not related to whether locals are into or not into discussions.

[krapp]

HN is designed to encourage news over discussions. PG thought free discussion would encourage "blogging" and low quality content.

Which is why the text of those posts is pre-faded, so the longer they are, the more painful they are to read, and the less likely they are to be engaged with. News posts also get more visibility than text posts.