I suspect there's good reason why HN is still using this old codebase. YC after all is not short of the cash needed for a complete revamp.
The site is very much hacked together, but works... In a lot of ways, this reflects the hacker ethos of getting something up and running quickly at low cost while still producing value.
A revamp might have negative impact too by attracting a wider, more mainstream audience which could possibly dilute the purity of the community here.
Careful now :) It's not like there's anything stopping HN attracting a wider audience anyway; there's no restriction on who can register. Anyone can come and join in, which (in my opinion) is as it should be.
Of course. I'm not suggesting that there should be any limitations on who can join, but as the community moves more mainstream, quality will dilute. As the site is rather un-sexy right now, it seems to attract those who are genuinely interested. Remember what happened to Digg...
The site is very much hacked together, but works... In a lot of ways, this reflects the hacker ethos of getting something up and running quickly at low cost while still producing value.
A revamp might have negative impact too by attracting a wider, more mainstream audience which could possibly dilute the purity of the community here.