My hunch is HN got hit by a couple coordinated and ongoing info ops. I've noticed a couple topics and clusters that automatically gather the same users and a sudden cluster of young low karma accounts. It's not just Israel-Palestine or Iran, but also anything Russia-Ukraine, US elections, or China related.

Despite what the moderators say, their moderation hasn't kept pace with LOTL accounts and other HN account reselling platforms.

At some point this will blow back on YCombinator, especially because my understanding is that YCombinator treats all posts on HN as YC's IP.

That said, I also know two fairly prominent founders who are also fairly active HNers who felt social media activism (especially on HN) would help drive their message. One of them founded a fairly prominent DevOps company.

The silver lining is that HN doesn't actually matter to most people in the industry. It's become an inside joke at my fund to call a pitch or idea "HN worthy". Most younger (below 35) techies don't use HN and most older techies don't either.

Increasingly the mindshare and usage on HN is largely outside of the US, with most activity occuring outside normal US hours (3am-9am PST).