Purely anecdotal, but to me there was a pretty noticeable downturn in comment quality over the last 1.5 - 2 years, when the post-covid-bubble layoffs and RTO stuff started.
Maybe commenters who were previously able to waste time on their jobs posting here no longer could?
HN readers are pretty good about downvoting low-quality comments (including ones that I've made). You can help by doing the same.
I personally agree that there seem more low quality comments and also submissions but, as a sibling poster points out, we aren't permitted to discuss it because of the guidelines. There's nothing really to be done about it other than downvoting or flagging until the site moderators decide otherwise.
> it seems as though comments like these are becoming increasingly common here on HN.
My guess is Reddit refugees coming here. Just another day in the Eternal September of the internet.
I've been a long time lurker on HN, since probably 2008, and this has been a common complaint so much so that it's in the site guidelines.
> Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.