zlacker

>>muelle+(OP)
Two big reasons people miss:

(a) HN is the front-end and back-end of a bunch of YC business processes.

(b) The voting ring and antispam features rely on obscurity; they are game-able.

The code for older versions of HN is available, but you'd be better off with the code for lobste.rs.

>>tptace+56
The third big reason:

(c) The standard complaints don't matter because they don't impact growth.

There's a message in that.

It is, "Ship."

>>brudge+Ob
I would say the look and name of HN do impact growth in certain "demographics". That might even be the idea.

>>subsys+Yb
In that vein, discouraging memes, insider jokes, meanness, snark, and flamewars, also impact growth.