jshen: I feel your pain. I think there's been too much down-voting by the karma bullies on HN lately, and I think that's the number one reason there's been less comments on HN.
Of course, there are folks who will feel that even though there are less comments lately the level of discourse is higher.
Also, in the open source world there is no visible difference in robustness or productivity.
Edit: I forgot to mention go, and I thought HN was better than down voting someone that has a different opinion.