There is obviously also a network effect at play here that makes people unwilling to explore new options. But just like MySpace, Facebook or tumblr showed you can always ruin a good thing and eventually people will move onto greener pastures.

However, I love love love Hackernews and dang is one of the main reasons this little internet place became such an oasis for the intellectually curious, and interesting as well as serious conversation.

What are they? Can you link to them? Would love to see what else is out there! Personally I don't care much for discussion about web programming really, but more general tech news(fusion, space and the related politics).

For one, https://boards.4chan.org/g/. You’ll see pretty quickly why advertising funded message boards with laissez-faire moderation are a bad idea.