Are there many sizable communities out there left that rival HN’s s/n ratio, civility and substance?
I can think of some with one or two of those attributes but not many that match it all the way around.
Not sure to be honest, but it feels like if HN never goes through a redesign, we'll still be enjoying it in 2050.
Not a full redesign, but there are quite a few UX issues that really need to be addressed. These 2 stand out most for me:
- mobile issues: text too small, up/down vote not usable
- post text almost unreadable, it should not be lighter than comment text
Probably not so useful for mobile, but have a look at Refined HN extension: https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news
I discovered it a few days ago. It seems to include a "override CSS" box in the menu, allowing anyone to customize the look of HN.