It seems like HN's content is becoming less and less technical over time and much more political and social, and this thread is a great example. I've also noticed more and more "agenda pushers" posting here, people who can't contribute on the technical threads but aggressively upvote and comment on the non-technical threads.
I was about to suggest new, clearer guidelines restricting much of this non-technical content to reverse the decline, but according to the current guidelines, it seems like it's already prohibited:
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.
Maybe stricter enforcement would be in order (dang? jascquesm?)
I don't think the mix of stories has changed much. Drawing conclusions about HN based on limited sample sizes is usually fallacious, because there's a lot of fluctuation. A thread about Bowie dying is an outlier; when Michael Jackson died the reaction was similar.
Comparing the stories about Bowie, Naur, and Amdahl isn't valid. Their fame is of different orders of magnitude, even among a sophisticated technical audience.
A passing comment about the impact of technology on the music industry is enough to make someone's death relevant here?
But you're correct; if I consider HN to be heading inexorably in a direction I dislike, I shouldn't waste my time here. Have fun posting and commenting on celebrity news, articles from the The Guardian and The Intercept without me.
I disagree. More to the point, you don't find 50 articles about any pop, music, or celebrity here. This is an outlier that is only appearing because David Bowie had an outsized impact in larger culture.
So basically, you're complaining about a problem/trend that doesn't exist. Your proposed solution isn't really helpful as this article will likely have traveled down to the bottom of the list in a week, and your quoting the guidelines also isn't relevant since this is not about "politics, crime, or sports".
It seems like HN's content is becoming less and less technical over time and much more political and social, and this thread is a great example. I've also noticed more and more "agenda pushers" posting here, people who can't contribute on the technical threads but aggressively upvote and comment on the non-technical threads.
I was about to suggest new, clearer guidelines restricting much of this non-technical content to reverse the decline, but according to the current guidelines, it seems like it's already prohibited:
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.
Maybe stricter enforcement would be in order (dang? jascquesm?)