I certainly see Delicious and HN as being in the same landscape, but different. Delicious has the concept of friends, so there is a social network aspect to it. HN has comments, so there is a forum aspect to it.
I don't have many friends on Delicious, and no friends with really similar interests, so the social network aspect is not worth much to me. HN has lots of reasonably bright and knowledgeable users, so the comments are worth something to me. It's the classic private vs public dichotomy in social networks.
If Delicious could somehow mix in some of the forum aspect that HN has, it could become enormously valuable to me. If it let me read and participate in discussions like HN, but focused on the areas i am specifically interested in (more Rust, less Bitcoin), it would replace HN in an instant.
I don't have many friends on Delicious, and no friends with really similar interests, so the social network aspect is not worth much to me. HN has lots of reasonably bright and knowledgeable users, so the comments are worth something to me. It's the classic private vs public dichotomy in social networks.
If Delicious could somehow mix in some of the forum aspect that HN has, it could become enormously valuable to me. If it let me read and participate in discussions like HN, but focused on the areas i am specifically interested in (more Rust, less Bitcoin), it would replace HN in an instant.