There have always been fluctuations and swings in HN's history, sometimes big swings, and those always bring these sorts of reflection. But then it fluctuates or swings its way back out.

Let's not forget that randomness includes sequences that seem non-random—sometimes long sequences, and occasionally longer sequences than one would think possible from a random process.

If you have any ideas about how to further dampen hellthreads, I'm all ears. We can't just suppress them because that would produce an even more hellthreadish backlash.