I find most of the content on HN great - have a look at the front page now, it's largely balanced and good. The list pg posted is also spot on.
My only qualm is with articles like 90% of those on http://www.reddit.com/r/politics and http://www.reddit.com/r/business . I believe that if we don't keep a watchful eye on things, HN will turn into something similarly intelligence-free and I'd hate to see that happen.
I think the fundamental difference is that there's no real effort here to appeal to a wider audience. In fact there seem to be some things done (lack of a "fancy" design for starters) to discourage that.
My only qualm is with articles like 90% of those on http://www.reddit.com/r/politics and http://www.reddit.com/r/business . I believe that if we don't keep a watchful eye on things, HN will turn into something similarly intelligence-free and I'd hate to see that happen.