HN's community is large. The readership varies quite a bit, but includes talented individuals at the top of their field, famous people, powerful people, in addition to the everyday average people that make up the vast majority.

If there is a difficult problem, or a critical problem, somewhere in the world, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more talented and capable bunch of strangers to work on it. Yet many problems can only be solved by domain experts that have all the background information needed to work on the problem.

Other problems don't require a lot of experience. Sometimes just getting volunteers for simple tasks is enough, sometimes just spreading the word, sometimes soliciting donations. And a great way to inspire people to become involved is just to connect to people in your community and show them how an issue is important.

So, here we all are. Talented individuals with a vast connected network of resources. My question then is: don't we have a responsibility to use this unique site for good?

I don't know exactly how it would work. But there must be some way we can harness the power of this community for good. Calls for volunteers, or donations. Stories that inspire, or explain an issue in a way that connects with you. Organization and action through comments. There's so much opportunity for good here. But we need to be proactive.

How can we use HN to make real positive change in the world?