For a group that has no photo or civil names, and where people ever mention their gender or race, I have the feeling HN is getting a lot of criticisms. But then again, saying that is missing the point that people who argue about those things tend to define discrimination as not mentioning those, while they generally base their career and speaking platform on their gender and race.

Yes, but not sure of your point. HN is diverse compared to 17th c. London coffeehouses.

The idea of a social coffee-house was developed in the Arab world: http://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Coffeehouses-Beverage-Universit...