He did say experiment but that implies that PG wishes to manipulate the site in order to observe outcomes - when you manipulate something without due regard to the possible detriments it is known as "toying with" that thing. Ergo I asked the question as to whether PG's goal was merely to observe the community and manipulate it with no regard for the community itself or if it was perhaps something more lofty.
From what I've seen I think the community has grown organically out of the noble work of Ycombinator and that largely the tool of HN has been a relatively passive element in that growth. PG appears indifferent to HN as a tool - neither wanting to experiment with it, develop it, improve it, nor disregard it.
>nobody's forcing you to be here //
Nice.
Do you feel passive-aggressiveness is the way to build a valuable community?
It was not spin it was enquiry with an attempt to dig in to the nature of calinet6's statement: calinet6's response makes it apparent that the important feature of the statement was not the choice of the word "experiment" but instead the apostrophe-s, ie that HN belongs to PG. I feel that by asking the question in the way I did that I shortcut to this result.
[Aside: in general, would you say my presence as part of this community is to it's detriment?]
Thing is the community here IMO relies very little on the software - partly I think that is why it's the way it is, to keep out of the way.
HN is the interface to the community, it is not the community.
I have "paid" by being a part of the community and trying to add value to it as have most people here. Maybe I've often failed at that.
Digg I think were the last major website I used that considered it "their website" and failed to understand the ownership of the community and the vesting of value within the community that had built up around their site.
Your response along with that of the sibling I suspect doesn't represent how PG would have responded - but those responses rather remind me of those who bring a ball to a game of football. The ball is not the game, it is an essential part of it, it's presence at the right time is important but each player brings something to the game; the ball can readily be replaced. If all you have is the ball then you don't have a game of football. If the ball is absent then you can't easily play football but nonetheless a good game can still be made until a ball is located.