I don't know how it will turn out, but I think reddit worked out really well. It's no longer a hacker news site, but that's not really a bad thing. It's a great service for a lot of people. Honestly, the extistence of reddit and programming.reddit means a lot of people already have fine places to be.

news.yc and reddit are both young, even in internet time. New members are important, and any forum must adapt to stay relevant.