I think of HN as: slashdot meets kur5hin - its got the story volume and focus that reminds me of old slashdot, with the more thoughtful comment section of kuro5hin.
Having seen/participated in slashdot in the late 90s, kuro5hin in the early 2000s and HN for most of it, I agree that HN today is better.
I think that HN now is far better than /. was then. Like /. of old you have knowledgeable people contributing to conversations (a great example is Walter Bright contributing to the Digital Mars D and C++ conversations) but unlike those days HN has better curated discussions so we don't have to sift through as much noise and disruptions. (I'm sure someone is nostolgic for the page-widening antics of old. That wouldn't be me, however.)
I would swap HN with the /. of old any day of the week, personally speaking. And I was there!