While I love the culture and many of the articles, HN is not as relevant as I wish it was to my day-to-day job and interests. As a mechanical engineer/engineering generalist, I wish there was a version of HN that focused more on every type of engineering that's not software engineering. I wish I could find the blog posts about how to get the most out of a factory visit, the journal articles about new materials, and the latest startups that hire people with my skillset.
I'm not looking for Q&A or help forums (there are lots of good ones for that).
In the mobile app, look up "mech eng" etc., find a reasonably good profile under People, biased toward posting AND retweeting, then tap the dot-menu & "Lists They're On". Look for lists with 25+ members.
That's just one idea, I'm sure there are lots of ways to get similar results, good luck.
I had briefly been on some reddit / discord community that had a space for news, and another one for homework,
But I left because a single moderator was racist and misogynistic without realizing it (he mostly said you had to tell the 'minorities' that even them could apply to jobs or you were not supporting, and thought you had to teach Europeans about women because they didn't did this in job ads)
Now I'm on matrix ! There are some interesting communities about various subjects. But the fact they're on matrix indicates they're basically these IT passionate like on HN.
I also wondered if academic meetings are open to everyone. I remember that some non-IT university researchers used to spend time at local meetings and larger conferences, with co-workers from other universities. But these events seemed to be mostly open to researchers, or cost a lot when they are open to professionals.
At best, you have your uni alumni or a local club, if you're interested in these news.
Anyway, tell me if you find a relevant community online !