Digg used to be a great place for programming-related news. It was the place for a good programming news when it came out. Why? Because its community was populated by programmers. Over the years the programming section on Digg became desolate and ignored as the programmers sought refuge from the lolcats and poor discussion. A similar thing is happening to Reddit as people want to move somewhere that isn't dominated by discussion comprised of witty comments and mostly high-level tech news.

Strange, I spent some time in dig back when it was created and I never saw this level of quality like in HN. Was much more slashdot-alike.

I was also an old-school Digg user, and you're right, it never compared to what HN is. However, the way Digg declined (and how all communities eventually decline) as a result of an influx of new users with disparate interests is the same.