One of the things I value about HN is that it operates with a global set of rules and impartial moderators, rather than giving a handful of arbitrary users near

One of the things I value about HN is that it operates with a global set of rules and impartial moderators, rather than giving a handful of arbitrary users near total control over specific areas of discussion simply because one of them registered the name of a subreddit first. It seems like it works well here, there's a different "vibe" to the community, perhaps due to a typically more narrow focus, with some exceptions, and a set of users who have more in common with each other than a general site like Reddit. The delegated authority system on Reddit does have some advantages, for example the /r/science moderators choose to impose strict rules on discussion, preventing the mob from turning every thread in to long chains of jokes and memes. They also tightly regulate "flair", allowing people who really do have expertise in a specific field to prove it to the moderators, and then have all of their comments tagged with that information. Certain areas are far more permissive for the same reason, which also has its place on such a large site. The downside can be easily seen on some subreddits, where again allowing arbitrary users to have near total control has a much more negative effect. A small number of moderators can prevent specific topics from being discussed on their subreddit at all. That effect is even worse when the subreddit in question is one of the very large defaults, like /r/news. There are also subreddits that will completely ban someone from participating simply for having participated in another completely unrelated subreddit.