I can't stand reading the conversations on HN about anything related to the well-being or suffering of other people. I try to limit myself to technical topics only, or I start to get depressed and/or angry.
I prefer that strategy rather than have an environment of "gatekeepers".
Great observation.
I wouldn't go that far. The signal to noise ratio is worse than it used to be, but there's still nothing else like HN and there are still a lot of interesting technical conversations to observe or to be had. I continue to learn more here than anywhere else. I'll cope with putting in a bit more effort mentally filtering out the unproductive conversations.
yes there is, lobste.rs is exactly HN but with a lot more selective membership and hence better comments.
which is fine, if that's what you want, but, as a daily reader of both, they aren't even close to being the same thing