And HN is different...how exactly? There's a definite air of superiority here, but I don't find the commentary any more insightful. Besides, "reddit" isn't a single entity.
It's almost as if reddit is made up of millions of users and you can deduce the "average" or aggregate opinion of reddit by examining voting patterns.
Really? I do. Some subreddits approach what I see as a clear quality advantage in HN comments, but even then there's the occasional joke or non-sequitur. Which is fine. Reddit is not HN, and if they were the same, there would be less overall usefulness.
I enjoy HN and its semi-official policy of down voting comments that are are jokes and don't contribute to the conversation (it's easy to joke on HN, just include something substantive to the conversation as well). On Reddit, even in the more serious subreddits and discussions, one-liner joke comments still pop up, because while they may not get many up votes on serious discussions, I rarely see them get down votes.
Not that I don't enjoy jokes, but if I want that, I'll find the same (or a similar) discussion on Reddit. I just like that HN tries to keep people to a higher standard of conduct, because then that place exists.