I think it's more a matter of strong moderation. HN is a strongly self-policing site and it works very well here.  Drive by commenting doesnt make it.  Another site with a high signal to noise ratio is Charlie Stross's <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/" rel="nofollow">http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/</a>.  He has a strong moderation policy (read it) and deletes anything he doesnt like.<p>EDIT: I just went over to Charlie's blog.  He notes a comment by Jaron Lanier that "drive-by anonymity fosters vicious pack behavior on the net.