The quality of /. comments section has been in a tailspin for years. so it's no great shock that the opinions differ by a vast amount.
There are many people who say the same thing about HN comments.
Personally, I feel the same way since a year and half or so ago.
Everything in degrees, I suppose!
Approximate no-one reads it. I recently got Slashdotted, HNdotted and Redditdotted; Reddit melted the server (80k+), HN made it grind a bit (6k), Slashdot it barely noticed (<2000).