Technically this is hacker news, a site for links/news about hacking and things hackers would find interesting. While startups have always been something the site has featured, over the years it seems to have shifted significantly more toward a startup/money focus which is why I've personally reduced my reading here by a fair amount.

Recently I've been finding that my twitter feed is a much better way to get my dose of hacking related stuff -- if you follow the right people it's wonderful! (It's kind of sad that I have resorted to that though, since HN did open my eyes to a lot of things back in high school.)

This site originally became popular because it felt like the opposite of what you describe (ironic as it now seems).

True, but I'd wager the majority of readers/commenters are not investors but entrepreneurs. It'd be nice to see more support and can-do-ness rather than dumping on ideas. More constructive criticism than that's stupid and will never work.

The entrepreneurs are probably faced with a bit of 'zero-sum' syndrome, where if someone else is doing something successful or cool, then they may feel that there is less room in the market for their own idea/product.

I personally come here for tech related stuff (not an entrepreneur, don't particularly care to become one) but still find myself getting caught up in the latest funding BS news. Unfortunately, SV (and HN) seems to be getting watered down with a lot of money-chasers. Of course, I am sure someone, somewhere was saying the exact same thing 30 years ago, so whatever...