I think it mostly has. You occasionally get the odd person who is clearly New At This™ as is a complete dick, or even a seasoned veteran who goes out of their way to ignore "being civil."
However, since I've joined I have been noticing that they are becoming fewer and farther between. Good debate comes out most comments: even if those comments are fringe or flawed at best. "All in it together" isn't conducive to extremely intelligent discussion: if I'm wrong or being a dick I want to know it and if everyone is pretending to be on my side I'll never find out. There is a nuance to breaking that kind of news and the HN community seems to be slowly working it out.
If "goodness", aka entertainment value to the reader is what you're judging based on, then yes, I suppose I agree. HN is good for reader entertainment.
In that case, HN is basically the equivalent of a tabloid. Written civilly, while communicating very bad things about whatever it's talking about, while the reader is throughly entertained.
I think it mostly has. You occasionally get the odd person who is clearly New At This™ as is a complete dick, or even a seasoned veteran who goes out of their way to ignore "being civil."
However, since I've joined I have been noticing that they are becoming fewer and farther between. Good debate comes out most comments: even if those comments are fringe or flawed at best. "All in it together" isn't conducive to extremely intelligent discussion: if I'm wrong or being a dick I want to know it and if everyone is pretending to be on my side I'll never find out. There is a nuance to breaking that kind of news and the HN community seems to be slowly working it out.