Why isn't HN libre/FOSS?

Question

Is HN libre? I recently got told by F-Droid while installing Glider (an HN client) that HN isn't libre. Is that true, if yes why so?

krapp · Accepted Answer

Because it's owned by billion dollar Silicon Valley startup incubator and has a ton of "business logic" for YC baked into it, and it isn't worth anyone's time to bother open sourcing it. Dang has mentioned wanting to do it but it isn't a priority.
You can get the original version of Arc Lisp and the forum it's based on here[0], which only a select few people update, rarely, and they don't take PRs as far as I'm aware. And there is a FOSS fork here[1], which might as well be dead, but as far as what's actually running under HN's hood, good luck getting to it if you aren't a YC employee.
[0]http://arclanguage.org/
[1]https://github.com/arclanguage/anarki

demygale · Answer

This isn&rsquo;t slashdot. This is not a server under someone&rsquo;s desk. This is not a quirky fight for freedom through internet protocols. Y combinator is power, influence, money, and all the abuse that may come with that.