I get the distinct impression that HN, like Slashdot before it, has aged along w/ its original audience. I suspect most of the readers and submitters are aged mid-30's to late 40's. Which online communities attract the young weirdos these days?
Reddit, Discord. With the caveat most communities are a cacophony of people not having anything intelligent to say, but there are gems in between. Many educational YouTubers and open source projects have their own community on one or both on them.
A popular discord community, a good mix of experienced people with a bunch of beginners: <a href="https://theprogrammershangout.com/" rel="nofollow">https://theprogrammershangout.com/</a>