Not sure that’s always been true, or at least for sure PG was open about subsets if the code. Generally, there’s reason to open source code, and open sourcing it would likely result in more overhead not less; generally HN goal is to very, very slowly change the code, interface, etc.
Honestly, cloning HN really would not be that hard, cloning dang, that’s another story.
EDIT:
Here’s a recent comment from dang on open source HN:
Honestly, cloning HN really would not be that hard, cloning dang, that’s another story.
EDIT: Here’s a recent comment from dang on open source HN:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22791221