Is that true? What happened to change that in 2017?
I've been around longer than that and I admit I haven't seen that much of a difference in engagement around here. But over such a long period it could easily have gone unnoticed by me!
The only thing I've noticed is the increase in activity during the recent Reddit shenanigans (which resulted in a drop of quality of the conversation on HN, but it seems back to normal now).