It isn't lack of love, it's that it isn't in HN's DNA to spell everything out. The site guidelines, for example, make no attempt to be comprehensive (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
The currency on HN is interest, not money, so 'unpaid volunteer' isn't the best way to frame this. If someone is interested enough to put together and maintain a list like this, that's in the spirit of the community in a way having an official list would not be.
(Btw we're all in favor of it and I believe I've sent Max some details to add to the list. If pages like this are going to exist—and they will, because online communities are endlessly interested in themselves—better that they be accurate.)
Re "better that they be accurate", I figured I'd check it again, since I haven't in a couple years. That led to the following errata, which I will send to Max. I thought I'd share them here too in case people are interested in this level of detail.
> it can be [dead] again at which point it can't be re-vouched
I don't think that's right? Pretty sure it can be re-vouched. I'd have to check the code to be sure.
> the [+x] number on the right
Since changed to [x more], to make it easier to click.
> will usually be at the top of the front page at that time
It would be better to say "on the front page". The "$Person has died" thread is usually at the top for a while, but we leave the black bar up for longer than that.
> the line between technology and politics is blurred
I've written a lot about how we approach this; it might be helpful to point to some of that. I usually direct people to these links first:
Removed in July 2020. I removed 'past' as well but there was more pushback about that so I put it back.
> what the front page looks like at any point in time
Not quite - it's a blended view of the front page for a 24-hour period, sort of like a weighted average of a bunch of snapshots. That turns out to be unsatisfyingly hard to get right; different algorithms produce very different blends, and none of them feels like a real front page. You can always look at https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://news.ycombinator.com to see specific snapshots.
The currency on HN is interest, not money, so 'unpaid volunteer' isn't the best way to frame this. If someone is interested enough to put together and maintain a list like this, that's in the spirit of the community in a way having an official list would not be.
(Btw we're all in favor of it and I believe I've sent Max some details to add to the list. If pages like this are going to exist—and they will, because online communities are endlessly interested in themselves—better that they be accurate.)