HN is one of the friendliest online communities I've found. I actually deleted my Reddit account because I knew every time I saw that damn orange "new reply" envelope icon, there was going to be something negative waiting for me. /r/programming is better than most of Reddit, but I still prefer HN.
I also feel like the HN community is better an following the guidelines than Reddit. For example, I feel more HN'ers treat the downvote arrows as "does not add to discussion", while on Reddit the majority treat it as a "disagree" button. Maybe this is because you have to earn the ability to downvote on HN? Who knows, but I enjoy this community more for actually discussing things.
I'm fine with "well, actually..." if what follows is a well reasoned argument. On /r/math I've actually had someone reply that they were a millionaire, and thus I had to be wrong, followed by PM'ing me a photo of their bank statement.
I also feel like the HN community is better an following the guidelines than Reddit. For example, I feel more HN'ers treat the downvote arrows as "does not add to discussion", while on Reddit the majority treat it as a "disagree" button. Maybe this is because you have to earn the ability to downvote on HN? Who knows, but I enjoy this community more for actually discussing things.
I'm fine with "well, actually..." if what follows is a well reasoned argument. On /r/math I've actually had someone reply that they were a millionaire, and thus I had to be wrong, followed by PM'ing me a photo of their bank statement.