I have to say, it would be phenomenal if there was an HN equivalent to this opportunity (e.g. like Ask HN but in the other direction) that didn't simply promote a blog post elsewhere in order to spark intelligent discourse here. This would allow intellectual superstars in the computer sciences and entrepreneurial spheres to hold similar forums without (the likelihood) of offensive comments to infiltrate the conversation, i.e. "Do boobs look cooler in space?"
I'm not convinced that a more intelligent discourse is necessarily better. One major reason I like Reddit AMAs is that they are so informal that once in a while the host answers some pretty outrageous questions or feels free to joke around a bit. Questions come up that wouldn't come up in any other situation or interview, and the randomness adds value. The chaos is a feature.
There's no reason you couldn't do it right now with the existing infrastructure on HN. It wouldn't be as fancy (e.g. the AMA subject's comments highlighted) but it would be just as functional, down to the ordering of the questions in the comments.
I find the reddit interface extremely annoying with AMA... I want to see all the questions and answers, I don't want to see the random ones that don't get answered, etc. Just show me everything in a neat organized way. Love the guys that summarize everything at the end.
I agree. I'm unclear how it decides what posts get shown and what is hidden in the "Load more comments" tag. I've even found responses to questions within those "load more comments" section, which I find odd. They are also completely out of chronological order.
If you open a submissions comments you'll see in the top left corner under the submission text and the empty "your comment" box a little drop down that says "sort by" ...
The default sort order is either best or top scoring which will rank comment order by vote score, I generally sort by "old" (oldest first; chronological order.
If you have an account you can alter your default sort preference.
There's a plethora of brilliant and accomplished people on HN, I'd love it if they came out to answer a few questions.
They wouldn't even have to be "intellectual superstars", if all they did was build out idea/product/service X i would still find it a very valuable addition to HN.
