Both of them are great platforms but we need alternatives (for the sheer reason of increased competition, if not anything else).<p>I'm not a huge fan of "design heavy" platforms like quora, twitter and FB, I mostly prefer "content heavy" platforms like reddit and HN but unfortunately it doesn't seem like more people prefer them. There are hardly any active ones on any platforms apart from these two. I know about hubski and raddle but they are mostly empty these days (at least for my tags/interests). Do you know of any other good ones?
Tildes is new, still a bit small, but seems nice.<p>The docs give a nice rundown of what's important to Tildes. <a href="https://docs.tildes.net/" rel="nofollow">https://docs.tildes.net/</a><p>(I have some invites available if you need one.)
Metafilter has often been suggested here but I never got used to its format. It's been a while though.<p>If you search here for "HackerNews for $subject", you may get lucky.<p>PS.: HN has been the best place for civil discussions for me. besides increased competition, what are you missing?
There is <a href="https://lobste.rs" rel="nofollow">https://lobste.rs</a> but that often just has what hit the top page on here.<p>If you're looking for new content then I'd suggest looking at research paper sites like <a href="https://arxiv.org" rel="nofollow">https://arxiv.org</a> or other eprint archives <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Eprint_archives" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Eprint_archives</a>
I continue to find great content on HN, but the quality of the conversation/comments has unfortunately decreased significantly over the years for me. Unfortunately it appears to be a trade-off of scale vs. quality.<p>Lobste.rs is an alternative that hasn't passed that point yet, so I recommend it.