The comment system on HN discourages discussion of the article, because threads cannot be collapsed and so there is only space for 2 or 3 top-level comments to get much attention.
The top comment is often a poor quality one, expressing some controversial view that gets replies, starving the lower top-level comments of upvotes, and cementing its place at the top.
It would be better to collapse replies to all top-level comments, and allow people to expand the replies to the comments they find interesting.
The top comment is often a poor quality one, expressing some controversial view that gets replies, starving the lower top-level comments of upvotes, and cementing its place at the top.
It would be better to collapse replies to all top-level comments, and allow people to expand the replies to the comments they find interesting.