[reaperducer]

HN goes through its phases, which often coincide what is happening in the real world.

Off the top of my head, a few of the major shifts happened when:

- COVID-19 sent everyone home (suddenly a lot of graybeards disappeared)

- Elon Musk bought Twitter

- Donald Trump was inaugurated

There was also a time in the past when Facebook, Google, and Twitter employees would poke fun at the secrecy of Apple employees because they would almost never post on HN. Today, all of the big tech employees are either absent or in stealth mode. Which is a shame, because this forum has lost a lot of useful insight and institutional knowledge.

I don't know what HN's traffic or demographics are like, but my guess is that it skews a lot younger, a lot less experienced, and a lot more high school/college than it did ten years ago.

[unclebucknasty]

>HN goes through its phases

I've definitely observed this over the years, but there has also been a fair bit of consistency in the form of certain through-lines and more balance.

In any case, what I'm describing is a pretty sudden shift—in particular the recent "re-normalization".