[anon987]

Less and less.

Too often comment chains devolve into nitpicking, pedantry, and into off-topic discussion where two people fight tooth and nail for Internet Points.

From a technical perspective I get little or nothing from them, and from a discussion standpoint there's little reason for me to spend my time watching people nitpick each other over things that nobody in the community cares about.

[firebones]

Don't forget the obligatory 18-comment critique of the OP site's design choices regarding page size, font, color scheme, and scrollbar and/or back button hijacking, not to mention hosting and CDN critique. It's common enough to warrant its own segregated meta thread for every post to keep it out of the on-topic discussion.

[ep103]

I get the distinct feeling we're getting more and more of reddit's overflow. If anyone knows any other websites like, HN, I'd love to hear about them.

[kbart]

I'm here for almost 4 years now, and I see this comment probably once a month. For such large and diverse community as HN, it is doing exceptionally well.

[mintplant]

Lobste.rs is like HN but smaller and more closely-knit. Mail me if you want an invite.

Metafilter doesn't have the same technical focus and has a markedly different overall tone, but is pretty much immune from the "reddit effect" due to a lack of upvotes/downvotes, good moderation, and one-time $5 signup fee.