It used to be small more than 5 years ago, but big posts now can get more than a thousand comments. That was unheard of back in the day. Dang even has to ask people to log out during those times to help prevent the load. That said, HN has always had an extremely fast turnover on the front page, and the content is roughly the same as ever.

There also used to be more old experts here than now. It used to be that you could come on here and expect to find someone who worked in some legendary tech position, a genuinely famous or legendary programmer. I don't see that kind of thing much now