The source is called news.arc and you can find old versions on the Web, e.g. https://github.com/nex3/arc/ https://github.com/nex3/arc/blob/master/lib/how-to-run-news
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There was a question recently, about why you don’t improve the HTML of HN, where you said "When the HTML is the most important thing to work on."(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4927231)
I agree that the markup is relatively unimportant compared to features that I think could really improve the functionality and quality of the site, and I bet you have a long wishlist of features yourself.
But between the lines I interpreted that that list might be way longer, than the time that is available to you, allows you to work on it.
So why don’t you open source HN? I get that with a project that is important to someone, it’s hard to give away control. But you can still be the project lead, you could still have the last call and I feel to open up the project will lead to great feature discussions and ultimately a better hn.
Have you ever considered open sourcing it? And what’s the thought process on your decision?
instead i'm proposing that building _this_ site becomes an community effort, with open feature discussions and people committing code to the HN code base.
there is an army of people who deeply care about HN, and are very skilled to help out. i think it would be smart to use that asset.
It is so very common for projects to inflate with new features until they become useless piles of filth. The fact that HN is a bit clunky is a feature not a bug. It will only attract and retain a certain type.
I get that people don't want HN to get worse than it is. But i don't get why people think open sourcing it would result in that.
I trust PG would be the kind of project lead who only accepts pull requests that would actually improve the site.
And I trust the community has a lot of smart people who would come up with solutions that would actually improve this site.