Everybody's guilty secret? Occasional awareness of not having read the article then adds restraint to active participation in on-topic discussions ("I might make a fool of myself for not having read TFA") that is absent in the inevitable off-topic subthreads, hence more participation there. It's amazing that hn is still so good despite all this!
Back to the original topic (no article to not read in an "ask hn", it's safe) : an exception are stories that reach a very high number of posts, that usually means that:
a) TFA will be something I should not completely miss, even if it's just another Macbook announcement
and b) the comments that might be interesting to me will be buried, I won't bother finding them unless the topic is something I specialize in
Therefore, if comment counter at 300 and up, straight to TFA
Back to the original topic (no article to not read in an "ask hn", it's safe) : an exception are stories that reach a very high number of posts, that usually means that:
a) TFA will be something I should not completely miss, even if it's just another Macbook announcement
and b) the comments that might be interesting to me will be buried, I won't bother finding them unless the topic is something I specialize in
Therefore, if comment counter at 300 and up, straight to TFA