For me, the better HN is https://hckrnews.com/

I like /active personally which will show controversial topics.

https://news.ycombinator.com/active

I do visit pretty often along with https://news.ycombinator.com/pool

No so thankless: there are many interesting links that never make it to the front page and the only way to find them is browse the first two or three pages of New. It's self rewarding.

If you're wondering what those /* urls mean and what else is there: https://news.ycombinator.com/lists

I’m grateful for those who do visit /newest because it’s a cesspit of spam and uninteresting links that, justifiably, never make their way to the home page.

/active, on the other hand, is the real insiders tip. It shows the most active submissions, irrespective of whether they’ve been flagged off the homepage by users who want to avoid “controversial” topics or by an algorithm trying to avoid the same.

You don’t want it to replace the homepage as the arguing will drive you mad over time but it’s worth checking in with to see what conversation is being hidden from you.

https://news.ycombinator.com/active

I really like https://news.ycombinator.com/best?h=24 with the GET parameter for hours.

If we all rely on others to skim /newest, the whole curation system collapses. Maybe the homepage should surface a couple random fresh posts too?