> I ask again: why not simply host it ourselves? Because the average person and the average HN user are different sets of people. The typical person who wants

> I ask again: why not simply host it ourselves? Because the average person and the average HN user are different sets of people. The typical person who wants to start a forum on, say, trout fishing or stamp collecting has only a vague notion of a server is, much less how to set one up and maintain it. Even if they did, they'd have little or no interest in doing those things. It's far easier for them to just make a Facebook group or whatever.