Although the level of discourse on HN is (in some ways) better than your average article-comment-section, I think the reason negative feedback cycles don't happen as much here as they might elsewhere is just the minimum number of posts before you can even downvote. You have to carry a grudge a long way to get to act on it here.
The low volume of users on this site also makes it unappealing to children, so you are far less likely to interact with them. Places like reddit and IGN have very different demographics. Who you expect to read your comment and who actually is reading it are very different in larger communities.
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Although the level of discourse on HN is (in some ways) better than your average article-comment-section, I think the reason negative feedback cycles don't happen as much here as they might elsewhere is just the minimum number of posts before you can even downvote. You have to carry a grudge a long way to get to act on it here.
The low volume of users on this site also makes it unappealing to children, so you are far less likely to interact with them. Places like reddit and IGN have very different demographics. Who you expect to read your comment and who actually is reading it are very different in larger communities.