zlacker

>>vincen+(OP)
>readers reacted negatively, even violently, to seeing [...] stories that were placed there randomly

>HN users have an intense emotional relationship with the front page

If a "greatest 80s hits" radio station started broadcasting music from the 00s and people got pissed off you wouldn't say "listeners of this station have an intense emotional relationship with it". When they tune in to the "greatest 80s hits" station, that's the only thing they're looking for; they don't want to listen to random songs.

>>vadfa+B
HN is not a “greatest 80s hits” radio, though. Users submit links and users vote on them. There is nobody making editorial decisions about what goes on the front page, beyond extreme cases. Sure, there is some tweaking, but in the end it’s all stories posted and upvoted by us, collectively. So it is entirely pointless to whine about the content: it is what the community wants to see.

>>kergon+r5
There is nobody making editorial decisions about what goes on the front page, beyond extreme cases.

HN is more actively moderated than this, you can find piles of moderator comments about it.

>>pvg+U7
There is the second chance, but stories that don’t resonate disappear quickly even after that. I included this in the tweaking the mods can do. I guess I went a bit far about editorialising, but it’s still a minor effect.

>>kergon+UA
I don't think it's a minor effect and without quite a bit of active fiddling, the front page would be full of meta, dupes and pitchfork-fetching-exhortations. This even comes up in a mod comment in this very thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028421

>>pvg+aG1
Interesting perspective, thank you. Though it's more about removing things from the front page than putting there things that people don't want.