Do you mean Hacker News vs. Reddit in terms of popularity? HN deliberately tries not to be as popular as Reddit.<p>A few years ago HN was featured in a relatively popular publication, (TechCrunch maybe? I forget) and we flooded the front page with stories about Haskell (I&#x27;m pretty sure, or some other esoteric topic) to drive away any would be newcomers from that piece.<p>HN is trying to appeal to a particular type of demographic - people interested in computer science &#x2F; programming and start ups.[1] The more you try to be all things to all people, the more you end up with the blandest content with the broadest appeal, like many of the more popular subreddits.<p>[1] Contrary to some people&#x27;s beliefs, I don&#x27;t think this means there should be stories <i>only</i> about computer science, programming, and startups, just that the stories should be interesting to people who find those things interesting. Of course, even among a similar group of people not everyone is going to agree what other things are interesting, but that&#x27;s what we have the voting for.