Where do you spend it, out of interest? What comparable places are there for chatting on nerdish things like this?
Reddit. esp certain subs. its not perfect, and its hard to find the same density of tech-smart folks as HN. however, its more relaxed and friendly, doesn't punish creativity, and doesn't have the same "that opinion or statement is not allowed here" effect as I see on HN. It does have a kind of liberal/PC groupthink on some issues. But they're issues I don't like to talk about anyway. Reddit's discussion forum UI is also much friendlier and more sophisticated than HN's. And they have lots of areas that focus on non-HN topics, while also being better at allowing one to avoid politics and "startup Foo raised/valued-at $X" posts, yet-another-framework posts, etc. Again, you lose some compared to HN, but also gain a lot. Luckily everything on the web is a tab away and we can vote with our eyeballs.
I was hoping for lobste.rs would be the place but it is invite only so the audience is very small in comparison.
I believe I have a few invites.
If you see this: How can one get an invite without posting a mail address in public forums?