Not if he disclosed that fact.

I personally wouldn't care even if he kept it a secret.

I mean, it's a social news site. You have no right to be heard here. (You should hear the complaints I get when I delete comments from my blog. "Free speech!!1!!1". If you want to call me a dumbass, get your own blog. I hear they're free.)

Anyway, if the super-secret auto-kill ruins the site, I will go to one of the other one hundred million (or so). Otherwise, I don't really give a damn.

HN has never advertised that it's "democratizing media" though.

True, although Digg's "democracy" is no worse than the US's "democracy". (Let me know when I can vote on proposed FCC rules, or the DMCA, for example.)