zlacker

I think the main problem is that there are too many comments: The number of comments has increased, but the number of comments that a person can reasonably read, reply to, or vote on has stayed the same. Thus, comments receive less moderation, and less of it from long-time HN users.

Part of the problem is the increase in the number of users. And there's not much you can do about that other than to actively drive users away from the site. (Difficult captcha? Erlang Fridays? Comic Sans?)

The other part of the problem is that the karma system rewards commenting. It isn't considered appropriate to downvote a comment unless it is overtly offensive or incorrect, so mediocre commenters don't receive signals when they are contributing almost nothing to the conversation. In fact, a mediocre commenter will comment more, because more comments mean more chances for random karma. And others see the mediocre comments and reciprocate. There is no way to reward someone for not commenting, even when it improves the site.

A number of the solutions already mentioned would help decrease the number of comments. One additional one: Make more of the site's behavior conditional on a high karma/post ratio rather than a high karma.

>>jcl+(OP)
I agree that there are too many comments. Perhaps a fix would be to discourage users from commenting by asking them politely not to. For example, the "add comment" box could be removed from the story page, and you might need to click on a link to add a comment, just as you usually have to do for a comment reply. Then a note could show up every time reminding the users that they should not comment if they do not believe their comment will add something valuable to the discussion. I would think that most users come here because they enjoy the quality of the discussion, and if reminded that their actions are reducing that quality, they might hold back on commenting. Many times I read a comment after writing it, see that although it does add a little, it does not add enough to the discussion, and just close the tab without posting the comment.