[spiffytech]

The last few weeks feel different from the usual mixed bag of HN submissions. Lots of submissions seem close to / over the line of the HN guideline, "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic". I know that rule gets bent sometimes when a topic is particularly notable, but the deluge of submissions about current events lately seems excessive. My RSS reader shows 6 of 8 front-page stories in a row that would likely have been buried as off-topic maybe 5+ years ago.

It's also not clear to me that HN has a compelling value-add on the "<so and so> deplatformed <so and so>" or "social media is amplifying <fringe faction>" developments vs the many other outlets covering these current events. While the current events submissions involve technology companies, they're not really stories about technology. We're discussing general-interest stories about media/service company policy that happen to involve revoking software access or broadcasting someone's message. The relevance to HN feels about the same as if e.g., a major TV outlet had been giving equal airtime to offensive parties and has now ceased doing that. HN isn't all-tech, but HN normally focuses on topics the average layman may not appreciate, and recent submissions feel much more general-interest than that spirit.

I've seen a lot of flagged/dead front-page submissions come across my RSS feed in the last week+, suggesting the HN community is pretty polarized on whether or not it wants to see some of this stuff, if something makes it to the front page and then gets killed.