Come on! don't get offended so easily, this is just an argument. I didn't mean to hurt any Y Combinators and would like to be very much a part of this.

I do think reddit have strong business model and generates more quality contents than Digg, for this I have backing from zdnet (http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=99). And Ofcourse reddit is a very much success and my favorite. Look at this data going head-to-head with StumpleUpon (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/stumbleupon.com+reddit.com/...)

In terms of backing my argument, if you think reddit have gone far than the Digg I think you should look at the compete data (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/digg.com+reddit.com/?metric...) and this argument backing that, reddit isnt that viral(http://socialnewswatch.com/digg-versus-reddit/). My point is it could have been more viral with little more effort and more to it that no other startup came close to Reddit and Scribd (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/scribd.com+reddit.com+loopt...)

And I could very well turn this post off, if everybody favors with this.

Lots of positive stuff without evidence gets praised without being accused of being Fanboy material. This could be a troll or a decent contrarian question, and I think the comments and responses show it was the latter.

I certainly wouldn't go so far as to label it a troll post at all- Keep in mind, PG et all encourage apps that are intentionally small in scope, such that they have a reasonable change of being finished in a 3 month cruch-and-run marathon.

There are a lot of great apps which fit this model, but they DO tend to be smaller in scope- The constraints of the model force uses to focus on their core feature offering, rather than adding everything under the sun, to appeal to as many users as humanly possible.

The examples, facebook and digg, had a much smaller scope when they started than many YC startups have...

Yes, I think initial scope is less of a concern, the way it evolves with time and adapt to user need is very much important for the success.

How do posts get NEGATIVE points when we only have "up" buttons for voting?

Because you have to have 25 karma to downvote.

Thank you.

Why are people down-voting for asking a simple question? Is THAT what "25 karma" gives them?

This community seems to be getting a little too overcrowded with self-important downvoters. Sad, really. I used to like it here.

There is so incredibly much I could contribute here, but now I ask "why bother" if the community begins its inevitable slide (thanks, Tech Crunch!) into Diggland and Reddithood?

Comments get downvoted if they don't add to the discussion, and particularly if they're off topic from the thread they're on. Asking how posts get negative value is a fine thing to do. Create a Ask YC post and someone will gladly answer. Asking this otherwise reasonable question in the wrong place however can lead to downvoting.

Everyone makes mistakes occasionally and gets downvoted (sometimes it's unfortunate but you can just get downvoted for expressing an unpopular opinion). But hopefully in the long run you bring positive value to the site and your comments are voted up more often than down.