[chistev]

There's nothing like HN, but the closest is Reddit.

If you're interested in programming then r/programming

If UFC, for example, then

r/ufc

r/mma

r/python

Just whatever it is you're interested in, there's likely a subreddit for it. The more niche it is, the better the quality of the sub.

[thal3s]

Reddit is deteriorating by the day.

The Fediverse (specifically Lemmy and PieFed) have much higher signal to noise ratios and are frequented by the same folks you see here in a lot of cases. Additionally, their APIs are open and free.

[kartoffelsaft]

As a frequenter of Lemmy (and I suppose PieFed because it's federated), it's really the opposite of HN culturally for better and worse. The only thing that feels the same is that most Lemmy users only look at the "All" feed so it basically becomes one feed like here on HN. I haven't browsed Reddit since the API issue, but I remember it being a lot more usable in the way GP suggests, i.e. subscribing to individual communities to engage with. I've found the SNR on Lemmy to also be poor for quite a few reasons, so if you're right about Reddit's being worse then I have to wonder how it's still as popular as it is.

[detritus]

Reddit is deteriorating every day like China's economic model is ever-closer to collapse each day - oft-repeated claims that become ever harder to believe when they've been trotted out, on the daily, for fifteen years whilst seemingly never getting any truer.

[nitwit005]

Personal theory is, you can get into a state where you'd still growing due to network effects, as you're the main location for some topics, but new communities go somewhere else, so you're losing that traffic.

Some of Discord's largest servers are for AI tools, as it seemed like the logical choice when they were getting going. A couple years earlier I'm sure it would have been reddit.

[mejutoco]

Reddit is infested with bots. Hn is not immune to astroturfing either.

[rithdmc]

The Eternal September is live and well.

[detritus]

And it's barely even March.

Not even a Long March.

Just to entirely mix metaphors.