[H8crilA]

True. But I think HN is simply a constant few notches above the baseline of the Internet. As the Internet is "sinking", so is HN.

Plus, you can actually have a good discussion here. Somehow the community knows to completely shut off any kind of "me too", "this is awesome", or other useless comments.

[cosmodisk]

HN is so much higher in quality compared to most places. Yes, there's a lot of 'programmer porn' links, but there are also tons of in-depth discussions.

[ShamelessC]

And lots of shallow dismissals/overconfidence masquerading as in-depth discussions.