From the guidelines, "Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something (e.g. to ask us questions about Y Combinator, or to ask or complain about moderation). If you want to say something to us, please send it to [email protected]."
It was an invaluable resource for obtaining open source software at the time, especially if one was using a smaller distribution like Slackware. In highlighting new releases, it also seemed to help sustain the excitement of consuming and exploring the software, at least in my recollection.