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A high ratio of upvotes to comments is generally a sign of a high quality HN submission. It means that most people don't feel the need to add anything or argue about it. If we're going to throw around accusations of being a "degenerate", I think it fits better on people who can't stop themselves from commenting even if they have nothing useful to say.
im kidding lol. its just a funny observation. its kinda like if you like it then its good to know the educational value of it for future reference. im always suspicious of high upvote to low comment ratios so i like it when users call it out.
> A high ratio of upvotes to comments is generally a sign of a high quality HN submission.

I think that the parent is trolling, but I don't think what you're saying is true. Low number of comments usually means that no one understands the topic, but they still want to upvote because it sounds interesting or geeky. High number of comments usually means a topic where everyone feels like they can chime in without reading the article, just reacting to the title.

We're not that sophisticated. And you have evidence of this on the front page right now. A story about AI copyright with 388 comments, versus Scott Aaronson's short rant about quantum algorithms with 12 comments.

> High number of comments usually means a topic where everyone feels like they can chime in without reading the article, just reacting to the title.

Would we be in agreement that this describes a low quality submission? If not in a way that's the submitter's fault, then at least indicating a low-quality discussion?

Edit: I guess even in your cynical framing, I think the topic only upvoted because people think it's geeky is still usually better than the one where people are reacting to the title.

Upvoting is for recognising that something is worth sharing to other users.

Commenting is for discussion.

These are orthogonal, mutually exclusive matters.

They do have nice pictures