A personally curated RSS feed list is about as distributed a system as you'll find, and you can keep the S/(S+N) level as high as you're willing to work for.<p>Comments take days, weeks, or years to show up though.
HN is often compared to Reddit, and the self-described "open-source federated Reddit alternative" Lemmy[0] also compares itself to Hacker News[1]:<p><i>Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, or Hacker News: you subscribe to communities you're interested in, post links and discussions, then vote and comment on them. Lemmy isn't just a reddit alternative; its a network of interconnected communities ran by different people and organizations, all combining to create a single, personalized front page of your favorite news, articles, and memes.</i><p>* FWIW, I have no experience with Lemmy beyond seeing it pop up here on HN from time to time[2].<p>[0] <a href="https://github.com/LemmyNet" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/LemmyNet</a><p>[1] <a href="https://dev.lemmy.ml/" rel="nofollow">https://dev.lemmy.ml/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?q=lemmy" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?q=lemmy</a>