There has been a lot of press around the HN moderation, mostly shock at the small size of the team doing it, but also around the bigger point, which is the care that HN shows about keeping its community in some sort of order.
I've built and run huge online communities in the past, and they have died by 1000 paper cuts. Little bits of snark building up like fat on the walls of an artery until the clot ruptures. I've tried installing moderators I trusted, but without exception each one would turn into a fascist dictator stomping on accounts until everyone feared to speak. I had to fire them all.
The biggest problem here is that HN moderators are not replicable or replaceable. There is a quote I can't find about how the type of person who wants to be a politician is exactly the sort you don't want. The reason HN mods are so good is because they didn't want the job, they fell into it.
But it also has to be heartbreaking work, like those in the Third World who moderate the main social networks watching beheadings and child abuse all day. Eventually it will take its toll and I don't know how the fuck HN will operate when it has to find replacements.