zlacker

What I've noticed about forums is that meta discussions tend to be most prevalent when they're brand new (see for example: <>>363 >), or when there's a major disruption in their operation or management (e.g., Birdsite, presently).

Otherwise ... there's sort of a constant drizzle of mild disappointments and/or outrages, often over moderation, content (posts or commentary) that's objectionable to some faction, and various interfactional skirmishes. HN sees the latter, but even that doesn't seem show much of a long-term trend that I can see. "General news" submissions (by site) have been a major part of front-page submissions from the beginning. Blogs have fallen somewhat, though software projects (identified by GitHub / GitLab URLs) are an increasingly large fraction of posts.

HN has been remarkably even-keeled over the years, without tipping over either into schlerosis, homogeneity, or mass dysfunction, as seems typical of many other online forums I've participated since the late 1980s. I've been looking at various aspects of that through an archive of all front pages from 2007 until a few weeks back (I refresh occasionally, though a few weeks doesn't shift findings much).