No, I think it was just to emphasize how much Reddit is growing.

HN is targeted at a specific audience and is more like a subreddit for a particular topic. It wouldn't make sense to compare them directly.

I think it was a humorous factoid rather than a dig; I don't think Sam Altman is attacking HN, nor do I think he thinks, or expects anyone reading his post to think, that HN / reddit scale comparisons are meaningful given their very different intended audiences.

No, it was just an interesting observation to put some context around just how massive reddit really is.

It's an odd comment given the fact that HN has never really tried to grow. There's a certain audience for HN, and it seems to be understood that growth for growth's sake can sometimes put that at risk. (anybody remember back when PG would ask everybody to post really obscure stuff for a few days when HN was seeing an influx?)

Seeing as how Sam Altman is president of Y Combinator, and there's a reason Hacker News' URL is news.ycombinator.com... yes, yes Sam Altman was definitely intending to insult Hacker News and everyone involved with it.

I assumed he was just poking fun at the home team, but it's nice to see HN users arise passionately in its defense.

I don't know if it was intended as a dig, but even as a casual and mostly-lurking HN user I perceived it that way, and was mildly offended on HN's behalf.

It would be interesting to see a comparison to /r/startups

No, why would he do that?