I have lots of political opinions, which I enjoy expressing, and even the lame in-jokes on Slashdot were special in a sense. A lot of techies are quite witty, a

I have lots of political opinions, which I enjoy expressing, and even the lame in-jokes on Slashdot were special in a sense. A lot of techies are quite witty, and humor is an essential part of human expression. I think that both of these things absolutely destroyed that forum, and that the rules are vital to the utility of Hacker News. As you say, there are other forums which have fewer rules about self-expression -- and those forums provide a continually renewed justification for HN's content guidelines.