I remember Slashdot in 1997, too, and would like to avoid repeating it. HN is poorer for substance-free jokes.

I've found reddit to be substantive, sometimes on par with HN, but filled with jokes. Depending on the subreddit, you may be able to scratch your itch there.

I've found most jokes on reddit seem to be attempts to get upvotes.

Then again I'm not a fan of the upvote system generally. One thing I dislike is that downvoted comments are hidden. It equates disagreement with spam and discourages people from expressing genuine beliefs and reactions.

I was going to make sure I haven't downvoted anything here but I can't find if there's a way to check.