Reddit has a voting mechanism as well, but I'll argue that the "echo chamber" and closed-mindnessness of the users is a lot stronger there especially in the larger communities. Also the people here are typically more respectful to one another compared to Reddit and Twitter. Both of these factors affect how people vote on Reddit compared to HN.
I agree, and would like to highlight two differences in social network structure that help lead to HN being a more civil place than Reddit beyond just the qualities of the user-ships:
*1. Restricted comment downvoting*
A user must achieve a not-insignificant amount of karma before they can access the downvote-comment feature.
*2. Lack of emphasis on notifications, especially regarding comment replies*
This is huge! It must certainly decrease engagement in the short run to continue with the status quo, compared to Reddit notifying the user of every reply via every protocol available to them. You have to seek out a reply to your comment, which requires you to write something worth responding to. It reduces Poe’s law significantly. I would actively oppose notifications being integrated into news.ycombinator.com - the apps and readers can do as they please. Wonderful balance, thank Guthix.
* Unappealing UI makes the site look boring. Furthermore, users have to be comfortable with the fact that there's no "easy" content, I.e., memes and one liners.
* Comment score is mostly irrelevant, so users don't try optimizing their score. This leads to better discussion.
* Only one board. Things stay on topic, as users from that toxic subboard don't leak elsewhere. So "bad" types of users don't have a place to hang out here, unlike Facebook or Reddit.
I'm much happier commenting here than on Reddit. It's demoralizing to put effort into a comment and then be buried under one liners and memes.
