[dang]

> There is every reason to believe he is directly responsible for protecting the interests of the company.

Yes, but the way we do it is different from the common assumption because we want to optimize HN's value for YC globally rather than overreacting to any particular story.

HN's value to YC consists of the community, and the community only exists because of goodwill and trust. To jeopardize that for the sake of suppressing a particular story (even if the article is false and/or sensational and/or shallow, silly or whatever) would be a super dumb tradeoff, so (as my son once said when he was little) "that what we not do".

I understand the skepticism, and of course you're free to disbelieve any part of what I say. All I can do is explain to people what we do and how we think about it, answer questions when asked, and hope that this is good enough to keep the bulk of the community happy.