Back in the day on HN there were many additional forums. Like OT (off topic) where you could discuss anything, and Politics where liberals and conservatives could bash the hell out of each other. And believe me it got brutal.
You could also form groups. Like if you had a group of guys who liked racing, or gardening, or woodworking, they could go to a certain place in the forum and discuss those things.
One particularly vocal group of posters who were like minded on the Politics forum decided that they would form a group called the Dirty 30. Their secret purpose was to troll the hell out of the forums and pick certain posters out and just attack them relentlessly no matter what they posted. They could say water was wet and a dozen posters or more would just rip them apart. I was invited to join the Dirty 30 and did, not realizing what it was all about. I've never done any trolling and have no interest in that kinda thing.
Anyway, it completely ruined HN for awhile. The board was in constant meltdown mode. There were dozens of Alts posting crap and trying to start trouble. It ruined HN for quite awhile. Then one day I logged on and all those guys were gone. Perma-banned.
They now mostly reside on a site called The HN Wasteland. I won't post a link, but you can Google it up easy enough. It's all the same juvenile crap they used to post here. It's funny because years later, they still obsess over this website and the things posted here.
I always wondered. Was VintageHawkeye, Patrick Vint?