[PilateDeGuerre]

>Most of us aren't here to be the audience for whatever startups and sites that treat HN like a marketing tool.

In a very literal sense that's exactly why we are all here. HN is ad supported just like most every no-cost website.

Never forget that HN is YC's marketing apparatus. HN is incredibly valuable to YC the VC firm (an incubator is a sort of specialized VC firm), to the YC startups, and to Paul Graham personally. HN is one of their most valuable strategic assets. And that value is derived from us, their adoring audience-participants.