So yes, the Y, its news and 'rejection' was a very good thing. Not to mention reading some really great comments from the community itself.
For example, you may find many posts on lisp but few on java. This is particularly strange given that Google's gwt is probably the best way to build ajax apps.
Bold claim, amichail, bold claim.
http://"onclick="alert('Doesnt-anyone-want-to-hack-javascript-anymore?')
I also happen to live in the bay area which makes it easy to meet people from news.yc in person at tech events.
Hope that helps ;)