[habosa]

I used to be on Reddit all the time. I had 9000+ comment karma, 1500+ link karma, and I didn't miss many front page posts. Reddit was a productive distraction for me at first. When I was in High School Reddit introduced me to a ton of interesting news, science, and of course funny shit that made me happy. I bought my first Java book because there were so many programming jokes in the comments that I wanted to know what it was all about.

After a while, I noticed Reddit was less and less productive for me. I had figured out which news sources the top quality submissions came from, and I followed them directly. I didn't need Reddit to teach me about the things I really wanted to learn about, I could find them myself. One day I said "fuck this" and quit cold turkey. Went from spending 1-2h a day on Reddit (or linked sites) to never going on it again. That was about 2 years ago, still haven't been back.

Then I got a software engineering internship and I was introduced to Hacker News. I had the same feeling I had when I started on Reddit. I was learning a TON and it was definitely making me a better programmer. I was being introduced to dozens of new technologies, frameworks, startups, etc. Now I'm starting to get that feeling that it's not so productive anymore. Partially because I know a lot more, and partially because an increasing percentage of the content is now opinion rather than reference. I still come on the site because it's a great way to keep tabs on the tech industry, but I can see an exit in the distance.

So there, that's my way-too-long answer to your question.

[jared314]

There is a constant complaint that HN is turning into Reddit. But, after looking at snapshots of the frontpage from five years ago, I realized, only the names have changed. So, the change must be experiential. (The same can be said of music and radio stations.) If you think HN is turning into Reddit, perhaps you are growing out of the target demographic.

[sosuke]

I feel similarly and think I might just subscribe to a Hacker News email digest at this point. Something with filters.