> Why has Hacker News become such a hotbed for cynicism, ridicule and snark by which almost none comes constructive ideas?
The moderators have almost certainly played a part. Selectively permitting snark from the in-group is easy in the short run, but eventually incurs a cost to the community.
I think the moderators do an excellent job on HN. The signal to noise ratio is pretty high here and while there is snark, there's far less than in most other forums.
One stark difference between HN, Product Hunt, and other maker forums is that HN is a very critical audience. It's even been specifically called out as such by Pieter Levels in his new book, Make.
Snark is against the guidelines, and I can tell you that the moderators find it dreadfully boring, whomever the source. We could use your help if you come across highly-ranked snark to please downvote, flag, or email hn@ycombinator.com. We don't see everything on the site, but we do read all of those emails.
This is a wonderful subject, memes and group think, I would say everyone feels like they are part of an minority/snowflake community in some of their views. Memes just makes it easier to get that feeling.
So it is not possible to have these discussions without the out-group interpreting your remarks as snarkiness. Handling that is hard, FUD is one way to handle it, compassion another. Social interactions are hard.
The moderators have almost certainly played a part. Selectively permitting snark from the in-group is easy in the short run, but eventually incurs a cost to the community.