I haven't followed this site for very long, but is purging articles about which people are obviously interested a common practice? If so, for me, this site's value just went to zero.
No, as far as I can tell this was the second time in recent history that this happened. The first was to scare away a flood of new users that threatened to radically change the generally congenial culture here on HN. The _why articles were getting a bit excessive, but I'm not sure it raised to the level of an attempted purge.