[sankalpb]

thanks for bringing this up. I'm interested by the way you characterize this 'vicious cycle', and wonder whether you see 'dialing back' to be as much of 'contribution' to the dynamic you're articulating since you are also suggesting that people doing so, 'stop contributing'. I'm also wondering whether you would be willing to share more about the how it was that the shared experiences you heard offline (i.e. IRL tech community that you respect) shaped your decisions as a member as to whether to or to not engage as much with HN, as an online community?

[NathanKP]

Interesting questions. I had already slowed down my browsing and commenting on HN after about 5 years of using HN when I noticed that using the site was making me more negative. I noticed that I was getting into a pattern of making negative comments on HN because it was getting me more upvotes so I decided on my own to stop using HN as much.

I spent a couple years not really participating on HN or anywhere else, just lurking periodically. Later I started using Twitter actively (mostly for work purposes). Many of the people in my community on Twitter are heavily critical of HN. Look up "the orange site" on Twitter for examples of a common way that people disparagingly refer to HN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%22the%20orange%20site%22&src=t...

I wouldn't say that Twitter influenced my opinion of HN though, it just confirmed to me that there were other people who were also feeling uncomfortable with some of the personality types and commenting patterns on HN. Of course Twitter has its own serious problems with negativity as well haha.