Long before the Facebook age, 
    I noticed something very interesting about 
    the personalities of the most vocal people
    I would meet in chatrooms, instant messengers 
    and bulletin boards: They were mostly shy. 
    It took a while for me to realize that this should 
    have been expected. Shy people tend to prefer the 
    anonymity of the internet, where social cues from 
    body language, eye contact and tone of voice don't 
    apply—largely because they are invisible to all.

This hits right at home. When I'm active a lot on facebook / twitter, I am a typical shy guy with little social skills. Then I started going out a lot and meeting lots of people. Then boom. Less twitter and facebook.

This might applies to HN too, but sometimes I find it weird because some people on HN are successful, and I think you can't be successfull without good social skills. Maybe we grow to become good socially, but still attached to the community? I've never experienced that though.