It's totally different. HN has very little technical content compared to /r/programming. Some people here say that /r/programming's userbase is less sophisticat

It's totally different. HN has very little technical content compared to /r/programming. Some people here say that /r/programming's userbase is less sophisticated than HN. In my experience this sophistication is only skin deep with regards to technical discussion. In the rare technical discussion on HN the form and number of smart sounding words matter more than whether the technical point is correct. It seems as if the people voting know less about the technical content they vote on. HN is just more of a startup and general topics discussion board than a technical discussion board. You can also see it in this thread: most people posting here talk about other subreddits than /r/programming, which indicates that they may not be programmers. On the other hand, people are more polite and generally nicer on HN. Perhaps this is an inherent difference in the audience, or because the comment scores are hidden on HN.