Does it? I think is worse in that respect. Instagram users meet up irl. Reddit has chats for connecting with people online. Hacker news has no way at all to make friends. The only worse place might be image boards that lack even a stable identifier.
It's all about the topic. "How are doing today johnecheck" "want to get shoot the shit over a beer?" said no one ever.
Hacker News has profiles in which people can and some do put information which can be used for an off-site connection; it doesn't have an easy channel for user-to-user harassment, but that just makes it easier to engage publicly without worrying about that.
You make a good point. It's quite odd that I often feel more connection to users here despite the lack of 'friend' features.
Nonetheless I do. I suspect it's due to the relatively high average comment quality. I'm looking for a strong taste of belonging in a digital community. That nibble from HN evokes the same tantalizing possibility as rare discord servers and subreddits once did. None satisfy.
It's all about the topic. "How are doing today johnecheck" "want to get shoot the shit over a beer?" said no one ever.