Looking a bit further, news.yc doesn't seem to be very SEO friendly or accessible either. Maybe there was a reason for not needing to be SEO friendly, but not accessible? By this I mean that apart from the topic not being in the title, there's no use of HTML tags to confer semantics from the blocks of text, e.g. no use of H1-H6 tags, no use of lists for comments.
Is there a reason for this? I just thought it was good practice, but I'm still just starting out in web design.
I think a key point from the post is that non-hackers need to make the first move - because face it, you need them more than they need you, no matter how unfair you think that is.