Its a nice positive self-improvement post, but I'd be interested in what the OP thinks has changed over that time re tone, content, titling, policies etc and everything meta.
Well, there is definitely some trend to see more general, non-hacking related topics featured on the front page of HN in the past year or so. I think everyone is well aware of that, and that is expected when a social community grows in size, while the karma restrictions and flagging somehow help to keep a certain order, I believe.
The creativity around the posts titles is also mostly gone in recent history, because of the application of new policies. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not.
In terms of the tone, I'm not sure how it has changed. It may be just me, but it seems to me there is more swearing and ad hominem than before in some discussions... while I think it used to be more civil before. But it may just be an impression, again.
