The product here is not the interface it's the social network - the people - and interactions that enables.
There is much to improve (page titles, semantic urls, recording of moderator edits, ...) but none of that is likely unless a sufficient quora of top contributors force the issue or decide to move (r/hackernews anyone!?). That in turn is unlikely because of the association with pg and ycombinator.
The product here is not the interface it's the social network - the people - and interactions that enables.
Exactly. Plenty of people cry foul every time Facebook update their UI or make another attempt to violate everyone's privacy, but as long as a critical mass of people continue to use it, Facebook will remain the default tool for the social networks of those people. If it works at that scale, it surely goes for small/niche discussion sites as well.
There is much to improve (page titles, semantic urls, recording of moderator edits, ...) but none of that is likely unless a sufficient quora of top contributors force the issue or decide to move (r/hackernews anyone!?). That in turn is unlikely because of the association with pg and ycombinator.
That's my take.