The political downvoting has also increased dramatically.

Worth noting you have to be invited to join Lobste.rs (by a current member). I'm not one, but the discussions there are often interesting - IME about half the stories I've seen here first and on those stories in general the Lobsters threads are a bit more technical and a bit more focused.

I quite like the 'what are you doing this weekend threads' it feels very small-community-like. [But that might just be that I've often felt a lack of tech community - as an example, I've used Linux for >20 years and don't have anyone in my life I could have a conversation about it with like you might chat to a neighbour/friend about pruning a tree or fixing your car.]

> HN's political discourse has been quite unpleasant since last couple of years.

Here we totally disagree.

Before people used to be banned without explanation, some views would be downvoted heavily etc.

Today it is better: there is even room for republican voices as long as they are reasonable.

And yes, I've been here over a decade.