[Zircom]

>or the first time in ages, I felt like I was actually finding out about tech news as it happened instead of being days-to-weeks behind the leading edge.

That's exactly why I migrated here from slashdot. I read both for a few months and was finding I'd see something on HN and then see the same exact thing on slashdot days or weeks later.

What eventually made me switch completely was the way comments work here don't encourage the inane, offtopic, uninventive, dead-horse-beating karma-farming injokes and references that slashdot and reddit seem to be inundated with[1]. Not to mention I find it utterly charming how often someone else will post something and the author/creator pops into the comments section to chime in "Hey that's me, would love to answer any questions you guys have". Nowhere else like it on the internet I've ever seen.

[1]Not to say I don't occasionally enjoy the occasionally silly comment, but I find the ones on HN to be a lot more tasteful and actually witty as opposed to the rout cookie cutter memes and references that are found on every single tangentially related reddit or slashdot thread that people can think to post them to.