I know the system pretty well. The trouble is that, left to its own devices, it doesn't optimize for signal/noise ratio. That's why we're appealing to the community to do so more consciously. The current post was an experiment in that. We're going to do a lot of such experiments until we see results.
HN isn't the whole of the tech world, nor has it ever been simply a vote aggregator. There are other factors, the most important of which is culture. HN's culture has been diluting, and we're going to address that.
It's true that that's opinionated. The only thing you'll get without an opinionated moderator is drift. If HN drifts, it won't be to an interesting place but a mediocre one.
I know the system pretty well. The trouble is that, left to its own devices, it doesn't optimize for signal/noise ratio. That's why we're appealing to the community to do so more consciously. The current post was an experiment in that. We're going to do a lot of such experiments until we see results.
HN isn't the whole of the tech world, nor has it ever been simply a vote aggregator. There are other factors, the most important of which is culture. HN's culture has been diluting, and we're going to address that.
It's true that that's opinionated. The only thing you'll get without an opinionated moderator is drift. If HN drifts, it won't be to an interesting place but a mediocre one.