“The orange site” is some weird euphemism twitter users use when complaining about HN. It’s also a great search term to chuck in to twitter for some entertainment.
because the name is harmless, uninteresting and unambiguous, but if anyone asks "what's that orange site" they can explain that it's bad because it's libertarian/capitalist/idealist/optimist/progressive/every-account-is-elon-musk-himself.
and this helps them to maintain their nice oversimplification too.
That was my guess as well (re lobste.rs), so I went there for the first time, but while the favicon is red the site itself doesn't have a prominent color at all, so I've no idea.
Perhaps it's not a reference to the site's design, but that lobsters are red and that lobste.rs is, as I believe I saw [someone] once put it on twitter, "for people who need a second orange site in their lives?"
(I removed the name because I can't find the tweet & don't want to risk putting words in their mouth.)
I come here to read interesting content about a variety of topics - even things that I spend very little time thinking about. I trust the community's ability to curate interesting content. Even if you think my trust is misplaced, I derive enjoyment from the articles and the ensuing content.
I go to lobste.rs for software development content exclusively. There seems to be a bit more of an intentional focus on that kind of content there.