I find that it's pretty easy to determine what is on topic. I usually click through about 60% of the articles that make it to the front page, plus a few random new articles from time to time. 95% of the time, one makes the realization that this is a new school of thought or an interesting piece of commentary on a current topic. 5% of the time it is just people self promoting their restating of things that someone else already said (on hacker new no less) and other people self promoting their company. On that 5% I leave a "why is this here" comment. And every time I get a well written comment telling me why this product is interesting or why this persons opinion should be considered. If you can't stand people asking questions about things they don't understand, then maybe you sir have problems sharing this "digital playground".
But whatever the case may be, thanks for the link, although not sure why this post is here instead of just a link post ;)
also, here is the on-topic rules for people too lazy to click the link: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
How did my suggesting a solution for people who apparently want it become "If you can't stand people asking questions about things they don't understand, then maybe you sir have problems sharing this "digital playground"."...?
There were people discussing the fact that they would like to see certain keywords actually banned from HN, and they were suggesting it on submissions that already had over 100 points and plenty of people participating in the comments. If you happen to be one of those people who thinks their opinion on what belongs > what the actual majority thinks then this can help. This was posted for them or those who feel the same way but didn't comment.
The reason this is a post instead of a link is that I wanted to explain why I was posting it, and what element of the script was relevant.
There was a little bit of facetiousness in there, sorry if it offended you.
I haven't seen many +100 vote posts with "why" posts, so I was more thinking about the posts that have no comments, or at least none than really contribute anything to the conversation. I do think "The reason this is a post instead of a link is that I wanted to explain why I was posting it, and what element of the script was relevant." is interesting though. I found your explanation was actually what made me want to comment. I'm not entirely sure your explanation added anything, and you probably would have gotten a better response with just a link and the title you selected.
But whatever the case may be, thanks for the link, although not sure why this post is here instead of just a link post ;)
also, here is the on-topic rules for people too lazy to click the link: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."