I think HN has a few advantages that give it a fighting chance:
1. It's not a business, or at least a direct one, so the site owners are not focused on growing the audience infinitely.
2. It is not dependent on advertising revenue, so there is no pressure to go "mainstream" to attract bigger advertisers.
3. The members are passionately self policing. Seems like every other day there is a thread about HN going off the deep end.
1. It's not a business, or at least a direct one, so the site owners are not focused on growing the audience infinitely. 2. It is not dependent on advertising revenue, so there is no pressure to go "mainstream" to attract bigger advertisers. 3. The members are passionately self policing. Seems like every other day there is a thread about HN going off the deep end.