More types of flagging? 
iamelgringo: I somehow get the sense that the quality of the discussion has correlates with how long an article lives on the front page.  A year or two ago, articles could hang on the front page for a day or two.  Now, the volume of new articles  pushes interesting discussions like this one off the front page within hours.  I pretty rarely visit page 2.I used to spend 30-35 minutes writing and editing a comment.  It doesn't seem worth it any more when the article is going to drop off the front page in 8 - 12 hours.  When I thought people might read it for a day or to, it felt like it was worth the investment.It seems like the current speed of article churn has increased the pace of HN, and has inadvertently encouraged shorter, shoot from the hip type comments rather than encourage slower more thoughtful discussion.