Somewhere on this site there's a comment from me stating that HN is pseudonymous and has a faux small niche appearance due to its UX and its lack of emphasis on interpersonal connections or any expected features of social networks. To me, everyone is more or less the same person (or really there are a billion of different people but since I can't keep tracks of what they said before they all just exist in a vacuum). I just know about dang, percival and another one I forget but recognize when I see it (alathorn ?).
That doesn't feel like a community to me. Every new submissions/feed is filled with new people with new advices, there is no continuity on HN.
Not saying it's bad or a good thing though. That's just how I feel.
i think a reasonable definition for online community is a group of people who regularly and continually participate in the same online platform.