[ColinWright]

Decide once and for all whether you think this is, or want this to be, a single community.

If not, then allow users to have different "front pages" according to their interests.

If so, then define clearly the policies and police them properly.

HN is currently sinking under a morass of links trying to reflect the ever widening spread of interests of an undifferentiated mass of users. Any given individual will find it harder and harder to find links that match their interests, and the site will become more and more bland, culminating in a race to the bottom.

Retaining the level of politeness is a noble aim, but in the end, strongly technical people will find nothing of value here and will leave.