HN is a niche internet community. Niche internet communities have almost always existed despite the "quality" of the tools they run on. It's not really fair to

HN is a niche internet community. Niche internet communities have almost always existed despite the "quality" of the tools they run on. It's not really fair to compare to any sort of consumer/business product that's in an extremely competitive marketplace. HN can do an incredible amount of easy caching. Besides a small box in the top right with user profile info, the entire page is completely identical for everyone.