This is absolutely social media. And like all addicts, people here loudly proclaim that it's less toxic.

Whether or not is it indeed less toxic is up for debate.

There’s that old joke about how everything with an input form is a social media platform.

What:s the difference between reddit and HN beyond the form?

It seems to be obviously social media to me

HN is definitely social media, even if it isn't explicitly labeled as such. Ostensibly Instagram is just a photo sharing site, but we all know it is social media.

> isn't HN more like professional news/discussion place?

I see enough racist and misogynist comments here to know that isn't true. And that's not even considering the low-knowledge comments offered up as expertise.

I long for the days of a Slashdot where you could filter out anyone with a UID greater than 200K or so, and it'd be nothing but 20yr experts in IT dropping rugged after rugged of tremendously insightful analysis. (Granted there was also plenty of GNAA frist psot stuff.)