Ask HN: Is HN a ‘healthy online community’? I’m doing a case study for a class
Absolutely not.  HN is far too insular and full of self-assured personalities who think themselves experts on topics far outside their expertise to be considered healthy.  It is also filled to the brim with groupthink, reality denial, and often a complete lack of both empathy and perspective.  A significant chunk of this is likely due to the demographic skew of commenters here combined with the negative aspects of being technically-minded enough to want to participate in HN in the first place.  That being said, it&#x27;s still superior to most online communities due to its focus specifically on technical topics (you get a lot of focused content and actual experts chiming in) and the moderation (both from the HN org and self-policing to prevent inane meme comments typical of communities like reddit).<p>Here&#x27;s what a healthy online community has:  respect for other members, maturity, empathy, self-awareness, strong moderation, and a diverse enough set of views from participants to make conversations well-rounded and thought provoking.<p>How and why I arrived here: the subreddits I frequented degraded in quality to the point where I wanted a less-mainstream tech news aggregator, and several redditors recommended HN.  I actually had no interest in commenting here until I got far enough along in my career to have actual insight to share on relevant topics.  I suspect I&#x27;m quite a bit older than most HN participants these days.<p>Why I stay: a larger portion of content here aligns with my interests and career than elsewhere online and the overall experience has not yet degraded to reddit levels of picking through trash to find gems.