> specifically architected to not use databases. You're posting this comment on one now; HN stores everything in RAM and periodically journals snapshots out to disk so they survive reboots

Yep! And for those that didn't know, this strategy on HN and other paulg projects is actually what inspired Redis! See this antirez tweet https://twitter.com/antirez/status/1110468354542919681 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19498379