In 1999 I was posting to Slashdot.
In 1989 I was posting to Usenet.
Over the interval between the two, I'd posted to email lists and online web forums.
The hosting entities have changed: academic institutions, college students, traditional / trade publications, venture capital. The fundamental discussion modality really hasn't.
There are members of HN whom I know from several of those prior instances, even.
The fact that you don’t see the irony of posting this comment on a web forum sponsored by a startup accelerator shows that it’s probably by far the most influential of the three.