I went to quite a few of the HN meetups in London, and they were great. People often behave differently in meatspace.

Bad takes can be hilarious, though. It's only a problem when the participants and audience aren't chill. Discussions where everyone thinks everyone else is wrong are fun when everyone's chill. I'd wager Redditors might not be the best group of people to have chill conversations with, but it's kind of surprising to me that someone would dismiss HN'ers that easily. But I guess some people just don't appreciate bad takes.

Also, I doubt that most people are going to focus on the pandemic at this point. It depends on where one lives, but even in LA most people have long since moved on from it, and no one wants to hear it at an IRL meetup revival.

But the beauty of it is that crap evaporates in real life. I don’t want to overstate it, of course, but the effect is always huge.

It would be a comedy sketch if you had a real meetup, but people using their "Hacker News" tone. Lot's of hot takes, fights. Maybe each person has a up and down vote button on their t shirt? Some boring conversation in the corner 2 people listen to. In 10 years time turns out it was the launch of Bitcoin, Figma or Dropbox or something.

That reminds me of a sports talk show I see on the gym TVs sometimes. A few talking heads, and a host who literally gives/takes points from these old men talking football/sports.

"endless pedantic arguments" here? nah!

nothing more painful than looking in the mirror lol