...But what if you're the rare HNer than doesn't actually care about startups?
I thought most people don't care at all about startups. I come here for hard tech (which is honestly lacking), hive mind opinion research, and, most of all, unfiltered snark.
still a nice group of irc people
Well, yes, there is that. Unfortunately, IRC channels have enforced topics: those of us who are on HN more so for the cool tech stuff, and less so for the startups cannot contribute to the forum: This is why things like HN Chat are useful: the enforced topics, if any, are broad enough for the HN community to all be able to talk. Although, once again, they would do well to be more integrated with established communications technologies (IRC, etc.).
This was the most useful comment in this thread. Am now on #startups.