I believe there is actually a definite cultural fault line between the older, core HN community and many of the more recent arrivals. The old HN I believe was pretty tightly clustered around ycombinator's social graph. I think if you played "six degrees of PG" with commentators, the average score has probably risen from 2 to 4, at least. I believe that PG's essays articulate much of the ethos at the core of the HN community.
My perception is that a fair number of "join us now and share the software, you'll be free" type hackers are not really enthusiastic about the whole startup culture of angel investors and "profitable exits". There has often been an anti-establishment character to hacker culture, and sometimes it takes on an anti-capitalist tone. I see a lot of people mention Reddit and Digg as cautionary examples, but isn't Slashdot really the first and foremost case study?
For the first year or so I read HN, I didn't make an account because I didn't think I had anything to contribute that would help startup entrepreneurs make money. As the perspectives expressed on the site began to become more diverse, I started to feel like I might have something to contribute. I suppose that makes me part of the problem, at least in terms of diluting the solution's purity. I certainly try to avoid precipitating conflict, but I also see a certain amount of conflict as inevitable unless HN does something like split into a separate ycombinator related startup focused board and a general programming/technology area.
My perception is that a fair number of "join us now and share the software, you'll be free" type hackers are not really enthusiastic about the whole startup culture of angel investors and "profitable exits". There has often been an anti-establishment character to hacker culture, and sometimes it takes on an anti-capitalist tone. I see a lot of people mention Reddit and Digg as cautionary examples, but isn't Slashdot really the first and foremost case study?
For the first year or so I read HN, I didn't make an account because I didn't think I had anything to contribute that would help startup entrepreneurs make money. As the perspectives expressed on the site began to become more diverse, I started to feel like I might have something to contribute. I suppose that makes me part of the problem, at least in terms of diluting the solution's purity. I certainly try to avoid precipitating conflict, but I also see a certain amount of conflict as inevitable unless HN does something like split into a separate ycombinator related startup focused board and a general programming/technology area.