HN works because of the effort applied to downvote garbage replies and keep the tone sober ond collegial.
I've had a number of replies get hammered, unfairly in my view.
Yet the signal-to-noise ratio benefits overall if we eat a little Type I error now and then.
And somehow, there is still enough good, new content to keep the conversations fresh. Some of the best are when someone shares a personal story, then there are tens or hundreds of follow-up posts -- generally supportive or inquisitive.