Could you also please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
This is an illusion - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 - the examples are old now, but the point hasn't changed.
Why this illusion, and how, you may ask? I can tell you why and how! It's because people are far more likely to notice the data points they dislike (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20notice%20dislike&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). Not only that, but the dislikeables make a stronger impression when you do notice them. This is why people with strong feelings on a topic always feel like the site is going to the dogs—they're unintentionally blotting out the other data.
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Edit: here are more recent examples in case helpful (what can I say, it's a hobby)
The HN crowd is far right - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41370117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41370117
libertarian tech bro site - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41674836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41674836
a haven for alt-right trolls and hateful abusers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41799329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41799329
HN has also been taken over by fascists - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42059688 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42059688
techno-libertarian pseudo-intellectual fascists - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42393303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42393303
HN has gone way to the authoritarian right - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42066014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42066014
tows the line when it comes to techno-fascism - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42781203 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42781203
Hacker News is pretty much far right when it comes to politics - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42618465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42618465
I've got just as many pointing the other way, of course, but the valuable examples point opposite to the illusion. That is, if I were replying to one of these (^^^^) commenters, I'd point them to your post instead!
See also
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13110004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13110004 (Dec 2016)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25391526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25391526 (Dec 2020)
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%2013110004&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
It's not an illusion. I've been on HN across various accounts for over a decade. There is a hard liberal-progressive tilt to comments and post flagging which has been documented and remarked upon by others on sites where such comments don't get flagged and removed. Your own bias is also quite obvious, as is that of pg, who is now known on Twitter as a block-happy liberal lolcow. But thanks for posting all that, I'm glad Bolsheviks seething at Mensheviks haven't escaped your attention.
I still think my explanation is more convincing, but perhaps that's just me.
I'm curious why you asked "when did HN become this" if you're now telling us that it's been "this" for over a decade.
> which has been documented and remarked upon by others on sites
You should supply links so readers can make up their own minds about how convincing this documentation is.
Sure, here are some remarks on news dot ycombinator dot com
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141350
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141963
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43142108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43142108
I wouldn't call this documentation in the sense that I thought you meant the word.
These are examples of users complaining about HN in the way many users always complain about HN. You'll find countless such comments making general claims about how the site is "all X" or "has become Y" or "never allows any Z".
The problem is that these perceptions are not reliable—people base them on datapoints that they happen to notice because they dislike them so much [1], and from there they jump to general conclusions.
[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20notice%20dislike&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
I'm willing to believe you mean what you say and are posting in good faith, but please read this comment and others on its link and tell me with a straight face there's no strong lib-left bias in HN's community moderation:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43209997 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43209997
(edit) And here's a nice response to my comment from a user with thousands of karma, illustrative IMO of the average flagger-and-remover:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43211418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43211418