Interacting with positive people is simply much more pleasant. At least for me. I recently heard about experiment suggesting that positive feedback is much more effective than negative one.
I absolutely agree that if you think people are wrong, it doesn't make sense to lie to them and say that you think they're right.
But the problem is when poeople focus on the negatives – ie, someone made a pretty cool product and half of HN is complaining about some small insignificant issue. Very often, critticism is not motivated by a genuine attempt to help the person. Instead, it's motivated by the pleasant feeling some people get from correcting other people and finding problems in their arguments (http://xkcd.com/386/).
I like the atmosphere on Quora much more. It's more positive and the people are more diverse.
I absolutely agree that if you think people are wrong, it doesn't make sense to lie to them and say that you think they're right.
But the problem is when poeople focus on the negatives – ie, someone made a pretty cool product and half of HN is complaining about some small insignificant issue. Very often, critticism is not motivated by a genuine attempt to help the person. Instead, it's motivated by the pleasant feeling some people get from correcting other people and finding problems in their arguments (http://xkcd.com/386/).
I like the atmosphere on Quora much more. It's more positive and the people are more diverse.