Of course, some elite will outgrow any community save for the few right, private channels in IRC (as with reading the newspaper, anyone will frown at the oft-jornalistic reporting of whatever they know too well). Conversely, some newcomers should really be lurking more, or at least asking around at StackExchange before asserting anything here.

But since the point of HN seems to be "sponge learning" at large (of course, different levels of sponge learning), I don't see any sane way of moderating what should be worthy of HN from what should be asked or posted elsewhere, so long as it has the feel and common interests of the community, and "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."