Not strictly a democracy of people, though, is it? There are opaque algorithms behind the scenes doing their magic, and moderators who step in and distort the "

Not strictly a democracy of people, though, is it? There are opaque algorithms behind the scenes doing their magic, and moderators who step in and distort the "democratic" process; it isn't just about upvotes. (In the case of HN, I'm not criticising this; in general I think it's probably MUCH better than it would be if it didn't have these non-democratic mechanisms helping to manage the site. I don't actually trust that "a democracy of people" can be relied on to make good decisions, in general.)