The people who quit for real usually don't start with a statement. I think making a big deal out of it is a way of telling oneself why one should quit. Contrast this with someone asking the question "Why did you quit?"and replying with why one did quit.
Considering that I quit for almost a year in much the same way I disagree. The best customers are the ones that leave and tell you why. I never learned anything as an entrepreneur from the people that just left. But I listened very well to those that left and told me why. Of course HN has no direct commercial incentive to retain Matt or me or anybody else, as long as we're contributing it's fine and when we're not there are 100's like us to take our place.
So forgive me for disagreeing with you but I see it different. Matt was/is an awesome contributor to HN and I definitely noticed him returning, we need more people like him, not less.
And quite a few people who 'quit for real' have stayed away, with or without statements in public. And quite a few 'old timers' have left and have come back (even if not always under their old nick).
I definitely agree that the best customers are the ones that leave and tell you why. I also think most, if not all, of the "I quit HN and here's why" posts are from precisely the type of people that makes HN worth reading, and the complaints they have are generally real problems that HN would be better off if it could solve.
With that said, I think there's a difference between quitting HN and unsubscribing from say, a online service. When you unsubscribe from a service there's a clear demarcation. Quitting HN is usually a decision of the form "from now on I won't go to HN", a decision which is very easily reversed. Because it is so easy to reverse one's quitting, it doesn't carry as much weight.
On the other hand, let's say pg stays off HN for a year. Eventually people will ask why he quit HN. If he writes an essay about how he came to quit HN and why (past tense) as a response to that question, it's more likely that he has quit for real, as well as being true reasons for why he actually did quit.
Another example: This is my last cigarette, because smoking is bad for my health vs. I quit smoking 10 years ago when I had kids and realized I wanted to be there for them when they got older. It's true smoking is bad for your health, but that might not be the true reason people actually do quit.
Funny you should mention that. In a way PG has quit. He's passed the mantle to dang who is doing an exemplary job of moderating the forum now. Paul's last post is more than 2 months old. And he did write that essay:
> I'll still be around as a user, but less frequently than when I felt I had to check the site every hour or so to make sure nothing had broken.
Splitting hairs here, but I consider that more of a "I'll no longer be the moderator of HN" type of quitting, which is not a very reversible decision. I was hinting at the fact that he might also quit as a user, considering his two month post hiatus. (Personally I'm hoping he's just taking a well-deserved vacation from HN, rather than leaving it completely).
