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It's a private venture of Y Combinator company. Why do you think it needs any earnings?

I'm curious because it takes a lot of time and attention by moderators to keep the HN atmosphere as civil and informative as we experience now.

How are the moderators compensated? There are no ads or anything on HN.

Do you know what Y Combinator is? They are hugely successful and have enough operating funds to maintain more than one site like HN.

Even if it was just a simple hobby site by PG and it actually cost him a non-trivial amount of money to run/maintain, he is still doing it. He likes his hobby so he takes money from his job/investments and spends it on his hobby. Just like you when you buy your computer game, how are you affording it?

There are advertisements placed on the front page by yc companies looking to hire.

I always thought they're free.

If it was free anyone could post ads looking to hire. It's exclusive advertising to a high value potential customer.

I don't think this is intended as a dig on YC-funded companies, but it would work very well as such.

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