I don't think this is a very good welcome for new users at all. I've found HN to generally be very welcoming. And as it has been said before, not everyone feels

I don't think this is a very good welcome for new users at all. I've found HN to generally be very welcoming. And as it has been said before, not everyone feels the same way as the OP. Though a lot of users are worried about the culture on HN. Most users like this site because there is very little trolling, low noise, and informative posts. And a lot of users here consider other sites like digg and reddit to be less useful because of trolling and a high ratio of uninteresting to interesting posts. So they want HN to keep its culture and focus. That's why if a popular story is unrelated to tech or business, someone will probably complain that it doesn't belong on HN. Most people who are concerned about quality on HN think growth can be ok, as long as it's slow enough that the all the new users can have time to learn the social norms of the site. And so if someone mentions it on a highly-trafficked website, some people get afraid that the user base will grow so fast that the new users won't have time to learn the social norms.Then HN will turn into another reddit or slashdot. People started worrying about the culture of HN six months after it started, so almost everyone here came in at a time older users were complaining about growth. Post welcoming new users:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459289 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459289 Here's a post on culture: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465991 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465991