A flat isn't strictly a shared space though. It's a space your landlord owns completely and is renting out to you. HN is technically pg's/YC's but it's clearly

A flat isn't strictly a shared space though. It's a space your landlord owns completely and is renting out to you. HN is technically pg's/YC's but it's clearly been setup to be a reasonably fair facsimile of democracy, with a few obvious differences (people with more karma = more power) but upvotes and downvotes are definitely a democratic process here.