I think you&#x27;re missing the greater point here. From the original announcement a few things were quite clear. You welcomed a different perspective [0] and those who wouldn&#x27;t want to go through the normal interview process [0], people was supposed to be nice [1], bias to be avoided [2] and that HN would decide. With this apology you&#x27;ve largely satisfied HN, but left everyone else wondering if they can ever trust an YC announcement again.<p>The things that was different about him was called out as faults (participating on his own terms, not knowing rules, making you uncomfortable), he was forced into the normal interview process (which you both said wouldn&#x27;t happen and explicitly tried to attract people who wouldn&#x27;t want to, then using that as an excuse to reject him), the &quot;be nice&quot; rules wasn&#x27;t enforced on the many comments attacking his character as a result of this process and bias wasn&#x27;t avoided.<p>It&#x27;s one thing to change the rules, another not to be true to the premise of the experiment. How could someone now in good faith recommend a YC initiative to someone who doesn&#x27;t fit the mould, when you can&#x27;t even make it work with &quot;one of your own&quot;?<p>[0] &quot;Hacker News users have many diverse perspectives on technology and business. Perhaps if HN picked startups, it would pick differently than YC. Maybe different startups would be motivated to apply, if they knew that the interviewing and deciding would be done by the HN community.&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440627" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440627</a><p>[1] &quot;Anybody who applies to HN in public this way is putting both themselves and their baby in a super vulnerable position. We&#x27;re going to rise to the occasion by being not only civil, but nice.&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440627" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440627</a><p>[2] &quot;It’s easy to form some really bad habits when you sit in a position of power to judge the potential of a person, a team, an idea and their execution—believing that you know better and focusing your time on finding weakness.&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440843" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440843</a>