"Authority (and potential for abuse) implied"? Well, I guess different things upset different types of people. Why does this have to be "democratic community"? Is the "democratic community" paying the bills for the site? I'm not a PG sycophant, but I come to the defense of the site maintainers. I would rather read a sanitized and on-target news.ycombinator site than a mob-rulz reddit site. But ultimately, they serve two different purposes.