Not an illusion in this case: that deep hierarchy of one-liners dominating the top of the thread is unmistakably Redditesque.
granted. but in my 276 days since creating my account (I've been reading for over a year), this is the first thread I've actually been let down by, where there are highly upvoted posts which add zero value to the discussion.
http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html