[Worf]

Given how most forums, news forums where I live for example, are full of absolutely low-effort insults, troll posts, obvious propaganda or just well-intentioned idiots, I can't imagine the trash the mods here must encounter all the time. HN is very popular so it likely attracts a lot more shitposts than we see with showdead.

Yet, it's possible to create a new account and get un-shadow-banned after a few hours. Dunno if this speaks volumes about how great HN's mods are or if it just means that other forums a really lacking in moderation for one reason or another (like "we have shitposts but it drives up engagement").

The trouble is that HN is centralized, like most forums. So what if it stops working the way it does now? There are likely many forums like HN with good algorithms and mods, but we won't all move to the same one, we'll scatter around. There isn't even a competing HN; lobsters is for narrower subjects, reddit is trash, what else is there?