alt Hacker NewsThe sites that are there for ad impressions already worked this way though. The incentives were geared toward poor human discussion as well (c.f. reddit as a best case, and e.g. instagram/tiktok/youtube as what they'd like to be). So the problem here is ads, a desire to grow to include the entire world to show them ads, and a desire to do whatever it takes to keep their attention to show them ads.
"The sites that are there for ad impressions" are the websites, there's no invision powerboards in 2026, the alternatives have been gutted and eaten by the sites there for ad impressions. HN is an exceptionally poor replacement but it's the closest thing I've found. I don't enjoy that has the exact same dynamics as reddit but the ads are on pages I click through to instead of directly on the site, it sucks that I still don't recognise any usernames here.
By next week this thread might not have existed at all. The usership of the site likely won't remember it. If I was posting half the content on this site and then stopped and was replaced by another username, would anyone notice? It seems like there is no real community to be found, we've destroyed our own habitat.