I don't see this site as being the spiritual successor to /. at all, the audience is much more money focused and much less software focused. I miss /. as a low 5 digit user there.
I certainly think that this site has significant overlap with /., though of course not 100% the same. It feels crazy similar to me in fact, like stepping back in time to when I used to post there.
I am not sure it is like sourceforge. The UI of sourceforge was always bad. Github's UI is quite solid. I actually started to hate gitlab recently because of their UI. I always feel in utter confusion when it comes to gitlab.
It’s like sourceforge all over again. History rhymes with itself, and enshitification has been added to dictionaries for a good reason.
As a once upon a time avid slashdotter, makes me wonder if some day, HN will go the same route.