Not the OP, but I'll take a stab at it: On HN, each thread is about a specific topic, and rarely has any direct connection to or overlap with to any other thre

Not the OP, but I'll take a stab at it: On HN, each thread is about a specific topic, and rarely has any direct connection to or overlap with to any other thread/topic, A subject-oriented forum, by contrast, is (supposed to be) about a general subject, such as a programming language or financial advice, all the posted topics are common to the one subject.