From http://ycombinator.com/hackernews.html: "The focus of Hacker News is going to be anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes a lot 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."
I can only speak for myself. This story appeals to my intellectual curiosity an order of magnitude more than the mediocre blogs and transient tech-du-jour articles that constitute the bulk of what gets posted even here (a site which is well above average). I would love to see more high-quality historical material and it boggles my mind how anyone could not find it interesting.
There's a lot of things that are interesting. All needs to be taken in moderation or this place will end up chokeful of Digg-style news.
TOP 10 BESTEST HISTORICAL MATIREAL
OMG .. THE MOST AMAZING URBAN LEGEND YOU READ TODAY !!
etc etc
There's nothing wrong with the orginal story, but if you are after quality anecdotes, then scooping them from an urban legends site should be your last option.
I can only speak for myself. This story appeals to my intellectual curiosity an order of magnitude more than the mediocre blogs and transient tech-du-jour articles that constitute the bulk of what gets posted even here (a site which is well above average). I would love to see more high-quality historical material and it boggles my mind how anyone could not find it interesting.