The HN altenrative I like
dailypings.comNot only does the site look unused - if this were a Show HN that would make sense - it also appears the place is dreadfully scared of anonymous accounts requesting "You must provide accurate and complete information when creating your account", email required ... and the kicker, signup page either not proceeding until script scrapping is complete or the interface is not as robust for different browsers as HN.
IMHO, there's lots of room for improvement before it even came close being easy to use as HN's format, let alone any sort of area that would compete as an alternative.
I love the simplicity and wish there was more users to make this the true alternative