It was a success in the sense that we learned a lot. If anyone wants to know about that, a lot of it is in the explanations here:
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
Some good threads to start with might be https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21607844 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22902490.
These explanations have become pretty stable by now—stable enough that I repeat myself incessantly: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
*Edit: here's where we called it off: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13131251
It seemed to me that in 2016 there were much more political news posts that I'd have said violated the "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic" guideline than there were in 2020. Is that difference because of a change in moderation policy? Or is it because a change in user behavior, where users are posting political articles less fervently?
Or is this just selection bias on my part?
One very important factor is COVID, though - a lot of headlines simply focus on everything surrounding it; it steals the spotlight quite well, which would otherwise be on politics.
- As you said, concern about Covid diluted the vitriol in a lot of political threads
- In 2016, t_d was in ascendancy, and its members would flood other subreddits with their talking points. After that, sub moderators established stronger anti-brigading rules. In 2020, t_d was either banned or made private, I forget which.
- A lot of the highly charged flash points of 2016 were no longer that relevant in 2020: Syrian refugees, trans bathrooms, 'identity politics'
- 2016 also had 2 polarizing candidates. In 2020 only one was still looked at that way.