There's an entire thread on SA for mocking HN, so I think you're right.
Muggle Of Glob, that's a lot of animated avatars. It's like watching an aneurysm in real time.
Is that still going? I used to lurk but didn't bother posting because of the sign up fee, and then I sort of assumed it went to poo poo with all the other big forums from the Silver Age of the internet. How has the culture fared in this post-GamerGate world?