(off-topic, but since the thread already is..)

HN felt like one of the last places on the internet I could have good-faith conversations with intelligent people who would form thoughtful, on-topic replies.

And now it feels like the user base here has shifted enough that the voting system no longer consistently elevates the interesting comments, but the comments that reinforce people's worldviews.

Everyone feels Eternal September sooner or later. I recommend blocking users on this site. Having hit about 800 or so blocks I find that the conversation quality has skyrocketed. You still get one or two low quality users on a thread like this (I hadn’t blocked this guy) but the truth is that it’s usually a few people.

Any time a user gives me a flash of annoyance with a nonsensical comment that’s the last time I see them. This isn’t a native feature but Claude will implement it for you in a really short amount of time. If you want a feature set to copy or a list of users to seed, you can just copy mine (in profile).

Everyone feels this way about HN at some point, it is normal. It is probably true that the user base has grown and so you see more low-value comments in absolute numbers as time goes on, but I still think the overall quality is decent and the community moderation solid.

It is also a Friday afternoon, and HN's weekend (and to some extent overnight) 'personality' is noticeably different than during typical business hours. I enjoy coming here on weekends but it gets a bit more wacky.

What do you mean? All of the comments that misunderstand the study are downvoted from what I see.