I actually think GitHub is a competitor. More and more often I find myself getting answers by reviewing discussion about issues on GH. Also, places like Discord I've ended up in commmunities where I can get answers to my programming questions. It's anecdotal, but it has caused my usage of SO to drop over the last year and a half or so.
> “I don’t see HackerNews or GitHub as competing against us directly for the same dollars or even the same attention,” CEO and co-founder Joel Spolsky said at the time.
Does Hacker News make "dollars"?
It promotes YCombinator startups, which in turn makes them money.
This entire thread has devolved into capitalism vs communism!