I agree. The responses you're receiving here are indicative. But it would help if you included some evidence of your own and a call to action.
Here's a past approach that proved successful for some time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4102013
Here's a past approach that proved successful for some time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4102013
I tried a call to action years ago and all Dang told me basically summed up to "become more active on HN".
At this point I think active filtering on my own is the only solution, as the guidelines around tone and conduct increasingly don't appear to be enforced anymore.
But maybe calling out some notable examples would be useful.
Established public figures here know how to play it. Everyone else either uses it as a temporary means for virality or are just here to hotbox the forum while it still stands.
In the meantime I hope your filter turns into something you think is worth making public. I have a 'concept of a plan' for an alternative but it would take some time and would not be a Show HN.
And we'll see. If I refine it well enough, I'll try to create a more generalized ruleset that anyone can use as they so wish.
This would be useful. As of right now it looks like HN is leaving that sort of analysis up to its users. Which is fine. But if this is going to be the case then a coordinated effort is necessary to help spring the mods to action.
But because of their "business model", they seem to care now only about retaining a critical mass of users (over everything else), nevermind that a large percentage of them are just worthless bots/shills/propagandists/etc. This is the poison pill for all social networks.
Basically, they have given up on their initial slogan of "news for hackers" and have now become a catch-all bucket with a heavy emphasis on everything AI which is rather a shame.
My general gripe with the level of discourse here isn't necessarily topical as much it is based on my impression that the community has reached some sort of Dunning-Kruger-Dunbar number where the threshold of people knowledgeable in some areas who engage in curious debate in other areas has been breached by people who think the purpose of the site is winning arguments/handwringing and other nefarious actors.
"Better mad with the crowd than sane all alone".
-- Aphorism 133, "The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence" by Baltasar Gracian trans. Jeremy Robbins.