[jmduke]

The reason is, while HN may be filled with all people who like startups--in fact, it may be primarily white males--so many people know so many different things, and have so many different perspectives, that I consistently fin conversations of a higher quality than anywhere else on the Internet.

I think this is true only with regards to sort of the 'classic' elements of HN; discussions of technical matters, startups, and overall just strong advice is wonderful and keeps me coming back to the overflowing well.

Discussions that include fanboyism of any kind (politics, education, and Apple v. MS v. Google chief among them) are aggravating. But bad parts don't negate good parts.

[jessepollak]

Agreed, but increasingly I find that HN actually does a pretty great job of limiting the number of posts that involve any sort of fanboyism that you mention. Many may get submitted, but the community doesn't seem interested in bringing that many of those posts (compared to other news sites/communities) to the front page.