[verysimple]

How about having a news thread dedicated to articles considered off-topic, that yet still manage to garner enough interest from the HN crowd. That of course does not nullify the guidelines, people should keep posting using their best judgment while abiding by it. The only difference now would be less ambiguity about the nature of a post. Is it off-topic? yes. Are there people still finding it interesting? Lets put it on the off-topic, yet relevant thread.

Maybe the voting in such topics would be symbolic. It would be visible, but would not really affect karma. StackOverflow addressed their similar concern with Community Wikis.