/r/programming is a narrowly scoped -- it has to do with programming, whereas HN is more generalized. Furthermore, there is a far wider variety of users on /r/

/r/programming is a narrowly scoped -- it has to do with programming, whereas HN is more generalized. Furthermore, there is a far wider variety of users on /r/programming. This increases the signal to noise ratio, and reduces opportunity for higher-quality content and comments to float to the top. And, one cannot discuss HN and /r/programming without discussing the moderators -- they are the curators of content submitted and the comment discussions, after all. I would haphazard to guess that the similarities between the two groups are more closely aligned than the user-bases themselves. As for my personal opinion -- I feel far more inclined to contribute to HN as my writing on /r/programming is more likely to be lost in the void, akin to pissing into an ocean.