As simple as possible. But no simpler.

That's not usually the side anyone has trouble with.

In which case I'm nobody.

I've criticised a number of projects for overcompressing the problem domain. Larry Wall's written on this eloquently.

And I'm not criticising HN's server infrastructure. Earlier discussion of style/presentation somewhat. Though for that I'm as inclined to criticise overdesign as well -- mostly on other sites, though arguably table-based layouts are a kludge.