[dreamdu5t]

Downvoted but you have a point. Why is there no moderation with regards to topical content on HN? Why should HN be a place for pop-sci articles and repostings from the likes of the Economist, LA Times, BBC, etc. r/startups has more content pertaining to - you know - actually starting a technology business than HN does. HN lately reads like newsclippings sent to me by my grandma.

[jacquesm]

A glance at the homepage makes me wonder if your grandma is a former co-worker of Grace Hopper or something like that.

[kzhahou]

You should understand that "my mom" and "my grandmother" are commonly used to denote technical illiteracy/incompetence and inability to keep up with the latest technological advances. This usage remans an unchallenged bastion of both sexism AND ageism -- a double whammy!

Proper usage:

* This app is so easy, my mom could use it!

* This article is easy to follow and avoids too much jargon -- my grandma would even understand most of it!

... you get the picture.

[7Z7]

You should understand that jacquesm made a pretty sweet joke.

[kzhahou]

Jacquesm indeed made a sweet joke. No, he wasn't the one who used the "my grandma" line. It was the person he was replying to, who wrote:

> HN lately reads like newsclippings sent to me by my grandma

which continues to propagate the insidious, ageist and sexist assertion that older women don't get high technology.

[stcredzero]

Why is there no moderation with regards to topical content on HN?

As per the posted policy when I joined HN, this would have been topical. (It has changed since.) "Anything that would be interesting to hackers." I don't mind at all if the occasional pop-sci article comes by, so long as they don't all do so unfiltered.

Ironically, this comment and the one it replies to are distinctly against the moderation policy, as per my understanding.

[dang]

> It has changed since.

How? I don't recall any change. Or are you referring to Startup News, the predecessor of HN?

[stcredzero]

Once upon a time, we weren't supposed to downvote to disagree. Then there was a capitulation, IIRC, and that became kosher. Now, I think things may be back to where we started. I don't keep miniscule track of changes to the moderation policy. (Maybe I should?)

[DanBC]

> HN lately

What you call "off topic" has been very much on topic for HN for a long time. The guidelines clearly say what is on topic, and it's more than "start up stuff".

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes 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.

That sentence has been in their since, well, ages.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080616133301/http://ycombinato...

[dang]

Your objection, and the answer to it, are coeval with the site itself. Take a look at PG's original announcement of Hacker News:

https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html

Of course we do moderate topical content on HN. But an article on the history of hypotheses about menstruation is hardly topical.

[gclaramunt]

I don't recall HN being about starting a technology business...