i think the main advantage that reddit has over HN is the combination of breadth and specificity. there aren't any categories or labels in HN and, as has already been discussed, people generally only see the front page. this leads to the "social echo chamber" effect that people have discussed elsewhere, meaning a lot of people read/respond to the same ideas over and over leading to an incestuous breeding ground for thought/commentary.
i prefer to create my own multireddits for content technical content i'm interested in discussing. one for languages, open source, web, mobile, or computer science theory. these would be impossible to find on HN but on reddit they often attract more serious comments (not perfect).
also, did you ask this same question on reddit? i'm wary of the implicit selection bias in asking for a comparison from HN users and not reddit. the users on HN who take the time to read and respond to something like this are more than likely to prefer HN to reddit.
one of the paragraphs that really struck me was regarding the founding fathers' awareness of the moral reprehensibility of american slavery:
> Some of the slave-owners, like Jefferson, appreciated the moral turpitude on which the economy relied. But he feared the liberation of slaves, who have “ten thousand recollections” of the crimes to which they were subjected. Fears that the victims might rise up and take revenge are deeply rooted in American culture, with reverberations to the present.
its interesting to me that this entry hasn't gotten more traction. i understand it isn't the most technical post (although there's an allusion to infinite scroll...) but technical relevance is hardly a criterion for HN.
i really like his point equating reading online to listening in conversation and its clichéd at this point that listening is more valuable than speaking. i find long-form articles/blogs much more informative because, oftentimes, they deal with more sophisticated ideas (complex ideas tend to take longer to explain). that said, i will be the first to admit that i am guilty of reading the first couple paragraphs of something before bailing or making a comment to one of my friends about it. sometimes i read the rest and find my foot in my mouth but a lot of times i don't.
either way, i am disappointed that this piece isn't more prevalent so we can have a meaningful discussion about the quality of discourse on sites like this. maybe time on page isn't an accurate representation, but i think the easter egg methodology could have some legs. there likely isn't a "cheat-proof" system, but at least those who read the whole piece will be able to differentiate comments from those who didn't.
one of the many things i appreciate the most about this essay is his sense of responsibility. its easy to see the leader of a large organization as an extraordinarily powerful individual, but he notes the seeming smallness of this announcement. he doesn't aim to change the world, but simply do his part. the last paragraph is so poignant because we all witness injustices and often act as bystanders. this is not a new phenomenon, but its important to remember to look at ourselves first and what we're each doing in our everyday lives
the important change being and update to digestive enzymes to further break down carbohydrates and proteins. they also lowered sucralose levels to give users more control over flavoring.
What's new in this release:
- Still more DirectWrite functions.
- Improvements to the common File Dialog.
- A number of C runtime improvements.
- Various bug fixes.
