Hey dude, I just read a bunch of the comments here. The HN crowd was always going to be a tough sell. Too many lone wolves, and proud ones at that (!), who don't realise that not everyone has the same sense of self-assurance to do things alone, and who forget that many others prefer company much more than they do.
I think the idea is great. As you realised yourself, COVID laid waste to a lot of social networks (the in-person kind, not facebook & co), so the timing of your project could hardly be better. The website looks slick, the url is a fantastic choice. I wish you the best of luck.