I'm an abrupt person and things
come out bluntly sometimes.
It came out as more than abrupt - it came out as positively agressive. At least to me it did. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that, and chose either to "be yourself" or to try to be less, well, abrupt. Being honest and diplomatic can be hard work, but personally I've found it rewarding.
He said it, but I was thinking the same. Why exclusive? Up until very recently I was at a company that was going through the hiring process, and the people tasked with administering the entrance exams were positively dripping with disrespect for all applicants that came through the doors.
They joked about hazing them and returned from virtually all sessions with words like "moron", "idiot" and "numbnuts" on their lips. Prases like "how could he ever think he was good enough to work here... or anywhere?" weren't uncommon.
Regardless of any other aspects of an interviewee's performance on a series of arbitrary test questions (which we all know often don't measure what the administrators think they measuring), all interviewees deserve respect.
I'm not saying the original poster had this in mind in any way, but bad attitude in hiring is pervasive among developers.
I'll admit my reaction on reading it was probably a bit knee-jerk. When I see the hints of "we only hire the best" in my head I translate that into silly semi subtle hazing rituals that ignore the person and rely on arbitrary measures rather than examining the quality of the person themselves.
Think why PG always says 'we invest more in the people than the product'.
Anyways, no harm done. An HN community JobBoard is (IMO) a pretty good idea. I don't think the YC one is really worth looking at, but one that serves the wider community might be good.
I think there is a lot of value in the level of demographic targeting you get by simply calling yourself the HackerNews community jobs board.
It doesn't necessarily have to be exclusive (though eliminating recruiters would be my preference).
When I consider the jobs posted at http://meshjobs.com/ I find the targeting is incredibly valuable. Because the postings are for companies that I find far more interesting than I find via a general search for developer on more widely used job boards (workopolis, monster, indeed)
1 in 100 jobs on Monster are attractive to me, closer to 2 in 3 are of some interest (to me) on mesh.
I think It's the focus that has value, not necessarily exclusivity.
I haven't made up my mind if it's a good or bad idea, I'm just trying to figure out the reasoning behind it.