Perhaps this goes against most commenters here, but I find HN to be an appropriate mix of both that has not changed much with time. Reading that link of Hacker News from 15 years ago feels little different from what it is today. This contrasts dramatically with the Reddit of 10-15 years ago vs what it is like today.
Discussion here is also still very high quality. I find it remarkable.
This sounds bad but mild shame helps keep a community working
Any time someone hits out with a pun or whatever comment someone will say "this isn't reddit" and the comment is made hard to read - over time I have to imagine that has helped keep it from becoming reddit
Of course I am also burying the lede a bit. Paid and dedicated (I think?) moderators is an absolute key factor too
Paid, not sure, but I've lurked around here enough to verify the dedication. The mods not only curate and consolidate multiple links (e.g., 3+ things that said Facebook was down this last week), but they also openly communicate what they did.
Dang is paid, which is obviously part of what gives rise to the dedication. And not that the vast majority of HN moderation is not openly communicated. It's things like score adjustment to push certain type of posts lower and boost others which are deemed to not have gotten enough attention.
Discussion here is also still very high quality. I find it remarkable.