Reddit is mainstream, and a part of HN culture defines itself as a bit elitist and anti-mainstream. Such people will often describe Reddit (and other forms of social media) as a cesspool of memes and low-quality content, and will sometimes accuse HN of "turning into Reddit" whenever they see a post or comment they deem of insufficient quality. That's common enough that it used to be mentioned in the guidelines as a "semi-noob delusion" to be avoided.
I think it's a mistake to compare HN to Reddit, however since HN is a single forum and Reddit, really, is a network of forums. There are subreddits with lower standards than here, but there are others with higher standards.
However, a lot of HN users also use Reddit (including, I suspect, a fair contingent of the "hipsters" I just mentioned) and they will have platform specific complaints, such as hating the new layout (which is objectively terrible) or this and that subreddit being banned or quarantined because the mods are out to censor this or that political group, etc. That's just Reddit drama spilling over to here, though.
Of course, YMMV. There's a lot of pro-Reddit sentiment as well, and people mention subreddits they frequent. And a lot of content from programming subreddits gets cross-posted here.
I am an active reddit user and I wouldn't say I dislike it. As much as I regret the changes over the past few years, I'm still using it.
I'd says there's an appreciation that HN is a different community and some jealousy in defending it. Each time reddit ratchets up its suck quotient there's a new wave of refugees. There's "instructing noobs and emphasizing this isn't reddit" and there's "hating on reddit" and I think the distinction is valuable enough to continue observing.
Hating on reddit would be pointless. It's like the ocean, it's there weather you chose to swim in it or not. Better: It's a big, protected bay on the ocean, and it was fun to swim in til the big ships started running over the little fish, and the outflow from the mines on shore got nastier.
HN's a smaller quieter cove with as yet fewer people pissing in it. That alone makes it feel more welcoming than reddit. Of course there's detractors of this board too; JWZ is apparently unimpressed for one.
"Vocal minority effect." The vast majority of people quietly enjoying both HN and Reddit don't make a lot of noise about it. So the subset being loud and ugly appears to be far more important than it really is.
I dislike Reddit purely on a technical level - their new UI is a disaster and is way too heavy, they’re sending you more JavaScript than actual content.
I think it's a mistake to compare HN to Reddit, however since HN is a single forum and Reddit, really, is a network of forums. There are subreddits with lower standards than here, but there are others with higher standards.
However, a lot of HN users also use Reddit (including, I suspect, a fair contingent of the "hipsters" I just mentioned) and they will have platform specific complaints, such as hating the new layout (which is objectively terrible) or this and that subreddit being banned or quarantined because the mods are out to censor this or that political group, etc. That's just Reddit drama spilling over to here, though.
Of course, YMMV. There's a lot of pro-Reddit sentiment as well, and people mention subreddits they frequent. And a lot of content from programming subreddits gets cross-posted here.