Ask HN: I'm worried about us...

Dear Hacker News Members,

Lately there has been an amazing rise in the number of "our community is dieing" posts that make us appear to be a bunch of up-tight, self righteous, pretentious assholes.

I've been around for just under two years, so definitely not the oldest member here, but not new either. I'm set in my ways - the content is good, the discussions are better. But, newer members/visitors may see all of these "omg, where is my community going" posts and think, "they sure don't like new members here."

This is what happened to the QuakeWorld Team Fortress community - a community I was deeply involved in for more than 9 years. After the release of Team Fortress Classic, the QWTF and MegaTF communities took an elitist outlook on the game. "We're the diehards, we've been here from the beginning, we're better than you." Guess what - it killed our community. We couldn't attract new players, we began to stagnate, we became bored, and eventually our community died.

So, please, stop with the "where is the old HN" posts, or the "my comments aren't getting the same upvoting they used to" discussions. You're just clouding the quality content on this site and portraying an elitist facade that will eventually lead to the destruction of the community. Members don't stay forever - the only way for a community to continue is to maintain a positive incoming/outgoing ratio.