

Article about Kenneth Appel dead on arrival - ColinWright

I've tried submitting this article:<p><pre><code>    http://www.i-programmer.info/news/112-theory/5791-kenneth-appel-of-four-color-theorem-proof-dies.html
</code></pre>
... but I guess the domain name is on the forbidden list because the submission is DOA.  However, Appel was one of two mathematicians who produced a computer-assisted proof of the Four Color Theorem, and as such I think he deserves an item here on HN.<p>Graph coloring is used in many areas of computing, most notably perhaps in register allocation.  The Four Color Theorem is many people's first introduction to questions that arise in Pure Math, and the fact that the proof uses a computer in a non-trivial way is noteworthy in itself.<p>So I've submitted this in the hope that at least a few people will notice it and take a moment to appreciate the significance.
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ColinWright
Clickable:

[http://www.i-programmer.info/news/112-theory/5791-kenneth-
ap...](http://www.i-programmer.info/news/112-theory/5791-kenneth-appel-of-
four-color-theorem-proof-dies.html)

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lutusp
By that reasoning, an article about Albert Einstein should be allowed
regardless of the status of the site that hosts the article. If that were
true, one could get links to any site whatever through the simple expedient of
writing up something noble and uplifting and adding it to the site.

It doesn't work that way.

~~~
ColinWright
Only if it's an article that's worth being on HN. The problem is that the
"forbidden domain" idea is a pretty indiscriminate tool.

And clearly it doesn't work that way, it's just that this case has led me to
wonder what could or should be done instead. I don't know why this site is
black-listed - we never get told such things - but perhaps a good article
should be accessible, even if the site it's on is usually rubbish.

~~~
lutusp
It seems all social sites have blacklists -- Reddit certainly does. I've been
told that HN blacklists Gawker simply because their content is so
irresponsible. So that would be a case where, regardless of the content of a
particular article, it wouldn't appear here.

> ... it's just that this case has led me to wonder what could or should be
> done instead.

Yes, understood. I can anticipate one possible alternative -- but to avoid a
blacklist would require someone to vet each exception. Too expensive.

