&gt; HN is incredibly focused compared to Reddit. That&#x27;s what keeps HN clean.<p>I&#x27;m not sure that fully explains why HN is so much better than Reddit.<p>Obviously HN is more focused than Reddit overall, but it&#x27;s ostensibly <i>less</i> focused than many dedicated subreddits. Yet the quality of conversation here is invariable superior.<p>I don&#x27;t think karma is the culprit. It exists on HN and works quite well—I put effort into my comments to ensure my ideas are clear and when a post is downvoted it makes me reconsider my writing.