The group was so much smaller, and also more more homogeneous, and there we so few alternatives, it's incomparable.

Even now it happens, eevblog.com (electronic engineering things) forums have plenty.

i’m finding mastodon very reminiscent of the early usenet, in tone and quality, tho haven’t yet seen a years long thread.

I stopped at having to decide on a server and the specific content of them. Is there a recommendation for HN-like people? i.e. mixes of tech, economics, small doses of politics, etc. in response to articles?

I think you’re overthinking it. You can follow people on other servers, so the actual server you’re on is… not hugely important to the experience.

I’d say, pick any server that’s close enough and just play with it for a while. That way you can get a feel for what it’s like, and you can also see if you end up repeatedly following people from a specific server. If you do, you can move over to that server if you want.

I started on hachyderm.io and it seems vaguely like what you describe, though I also follow a few people from infosec.exchange

SDF at least ostensibly overlaps with hacker folks, though they ended up on a list of Mastodon servers to join so there are a lot of randoms.

fosstodon.org?

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> The server you join only effects

The server you join effects who are the people who can ban you. Lately, mstdn.science has been banning scientists who have discussed the coronavirus lab leak theory.