>HN community more credit for having legitimate conversations about topics that arent purely sensationalist

/r/programming has massive issues with its userbase, they're opinionated and uneducated which is a disastrous combination. If you want to be with a supportive, interesting community you're better to stick to the languages subreddit (/r/python and /r/ruby are great) or HN. HN is superior in the fact it covers a broader range of topics.

As you mentioned reddit is great for entertainment, but not anything serious.