I don't know why, but I think a lot of it has to do with keeping HN a space for purely intellectual debate and conversation, or as riderofgiraffes says, "for in

I don't know why, but I think a lot of it has to do with keeping HN a space for purely intellectual debate and conversation, or as riderofgiraffes says, "for insight and information." The main argument would be that HN could descend into Reddit, but I think that's very unlikely.