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?
(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.
It's just that if you're in a YC batch or an alum you get posts, especially job posts, boosted.
I wouldn't pay much mind to this talk of mechanisms and gaming systems, sounds like post-hoc reasoning by outsiders.