That said, HN does have quality content and the signal/noise is way better than sites designed specifically to keep you addicted.
When I saw hn was down, I double-checked the news to see if a major part of the internet had gone down.
I'd argue that this site has a good signal/noise ratio by design and specifically to keep you addicted (where "addicted" means using and constantly returning to the site). This site is just designed to attract people who are put off by the kinds of tricks employed elsewhere
Or so we tell ourselves.
Definitely thought the same. Then I realized that I'm browsing trough work VPN and had a second thought: what if our admins decided to fight procrastination?