I thought the story was that PG wanted his own subreddit where nobody could down...

I thought the story was that PG wanted his own subreddit where nobody could downvote, you said no, so he built HN (this is a paraphrasing of hazy memories)

edit: If memory serves, Steve mentioned this offhand in a video interview I saw somewhere. I think this one, but I could be wrong.

http://blog.hipmunk.com/mixergy-interview-with-steve-huffman...