In my opinion the best thing about HN is that I am never told when someone responds to me. I don't sit there refreshing threads to see if I get a response, and there's no obvious/easy way to check up on my own posts later on without losing too much context. At first this galled me because I couldn't hold a conversation, but now I generally just say my piece and hope it helps or intrigues someone else. Sometimes I might search myself a few months later to see if I triggered more info, but it's not a real time thing, AND THAT'S OK.