I totally agree; it's a problem I've thought about as well, and it's not just HN either. People scan news headlines (whether on news media outlets or on news aggregators) always looking for something shocking or moving or hilarious or despicable. But after the initial reaction, often it fizzes out and there's no follow up. I would say though comments fairly quickly, the discussion can and does continue at times through a second or third link posted that gets voted up. But yeah, not enough times, and it's not even obvious often what it was posted in response to.

Well, I'd be interested in looking at that long essay if you end up posting it somewhere.