In addition to typically not commenting without reading the article, comments on HN overwhelmingly take the form of (1) expanding an argument (rare), (2) asking a question (less rare), or (3) expressing reasoned disagreement. Thus, the presence of an interesting article without comments that is at or near the top mostly indicates a reasonable level of agreement between what was written and the people on HN at the time.
Comments
In addition to typically not commenting without reading the article, comments on HN overwhelmingly take the form of (1) expanding an argument (rare), (2) asking a question (less rare), or (3) expressing reasoned disagreement. Thus, the presence of an interesting article without comments that is at or near the top mostly indicates a reasonable level of agreement between what was written and the people on HN at the time.