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Why is this on HN? Whenever non-tech posts are put up on HN, they're ruthlessly hounded. What does this article have to do with tech that absolves it? The fact

• _ph_ 9y ago
  It is a tech related post, especially an engineering related process. And beyond the importance of the Oroville dam for California, the repairs are an interesting case in project management. They have a fix deadline (Nov. 1) and not meeting the deadline was not an option. And it looks like they are making the deadline, what an achievement!
  • uoaei 9y ago
    That's quite a stretch, though, don't you realize? The H in HN stands for "hacker". I fail to see the connection to any "hacking" here in the article other than maybe "hacking bureaucracy to make a dam", but you must see the incredible lengths to which one must stretch the notion of hacker-related ideas to apply to this article. There are other non-SWE-related topics that certainly qualify, like overcoming natural barriers in engineering a la the Iceland forest article that was posted a couple days ago. This news article in OP is little more than a status update about something that affects California's water infrastructure and nothing else.
• dang 9y ago
  Non-tech posts aren't ruthlessly hounded. There are many non-tech posts and the intellectually interesting ones are warmly welcome. People who think otherwise need to read the HN guidelines—the mandate of the site is in the first paragraph: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html