I think it's just the "Ways to make a living in business"[0]:

> Be First, Be Smarter or Cheat

A lot of the most popular communities were simply first. Most others cheated. There's very, very few communities I can think of that were truly smarter and successful as a result.

I think we don't see the special, as I never see anything untoward on HN, and since I know the general population has some... Colorful people; the key here has to be the moderation team, and the front page mechanism (algo, manual, whatever it is)