Shouldn't that be an inverse relationship though? Without leaves on the trees you should get less reflection, consequently more of the noise should radiate upwards. Unless you're standing at the other side of a bush/greenery. In that case it definitely absorbs a lot
Lots of small unaligned surfaces, like leaves, scatter the sound and make it interfere with itself. Reflection only makes the sound louder if you have large smooth flatish surfaces.
Assuming your comment is serious (rather than some quip), I think what we're seeing is differing visions for HN.
One group (me included) enjoys some levity, as long as it's high quality and doesn't get in the way of substantial discussions.
Another group would prefer that HN avoids that entirely.
It mostly seems like a matter of taste / preference, so I'm not sure how we can come to one kind on this, shy of seeing the pro-humour approach clearly hurting the site.
