I genuinely think you have it backwards. The SNR went down significantly during the last weeks - which is understandable with events that dominate the news cycle so much. But HN was absolutely flooded with feel-good, no-content articles about just how good the author is, with everyone in the comments chiming in on how good they are and how bad all the opposing voices are.

That is not "signal". Voices like mine and the few others are though. And they are certainly not predictable as they're literally against the overwhelming majority of homogeneous posts in the other direction. The following downward spiral is evidently caused by the majority who doubles and triples down on their virtue signalling - not the people causing the signal/"trouble".

Now I know what you really mean of course. You don't want dissenting opinions. But you shouldn't frame this as a SNR issue.

The existence of bad comments doesn't justify adding more bad comments, and certainly not worse ones. That's how internet forums destroy themselves. Putting all the blame on the other side is just another battle move.

This has nothing to do with not wanting dissenting opinions. That's a cheap thing to say, because everyone always feels like the mods are against their side and secretly supporting the other. The issue is that your comment was obviously in the flamewar style.

Please stop using HN for ideological battle. We've had to warn you about this more than once before.