It is the community. Everything else described in the other comments is a function of one of the communities. This is a worthwhile question and an important p

It is the community. Everything else described in the other comments is a function of one of the communities. This is a worthwhile question and an important point for anyone who participates in the community. It's most likely relevant to your professional life, whether you are working on a startup, at one, or you are just interested. The better, question, or perhaps, just the follow up, is, "How does HN cultivate its community and how does it engineer for desired results." For me, I learned about Y Combinator through the "How to Start a Startup" podcast. I listened while I was developing. I learned about Hacker News through applying to Y Combinator. I later learned about Office Hours through Hacker News. Through participating in Office Hours I received AWS credits to help support my startup. The point is that I received a significant value from Hacker News before I ever extended myself. I now have a real commitment to the Hacker News community. I'm also a little embarrassed it took me so long to become a worthwhile participant. Demonstrating that value, and inspiring that commitment, is at least part of how they cultivate the community, and engineer for desired results, which results in the success you are pondering.