This can be a feature rather than a bug. One of the things that I appreciate about forums is that you actually get to build relationships that are more personable than something like Reddit, because there's more commitment involved.
Significantly more personable, almost incomparably so. I've never built any form of relationship on Reddit, unless being abused by other Redditor's counts and that's a big part of why I left it.
It's an issue with HN, but people generally don't get away with the same kind of nasty stuff on here.
On the other hand I have real world friends that I originally met on forums 15 years ago.
