I'm noticing some snarky comments, which seems to be a theme now when people post their creations. I don't think HN is the best place for those. Valid, constructive criticism seems a lot more appropriate here.
I find this site seems to be more trafficked than it was previously, but the noise to signal ratio has gone through the roof.
The part of non-technology related stories has increased trendemously, when some people point it as "non-HN", there are answered the Community Card (they forget Community and Common are two very close words). PG is non-existent has a spoken moderator who tells the rules when it's appropriate to do so (his absence is eminently suspect).
More importantly, a lot of the old users keep their mouth shut now, some have completly disappeared for obvious reasons. Most of them are prolly still reading HN but the idea of posting a comment has become tiring for them. The battle is already lost, but not for everybody.