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since this is explicitly against site guidelines... no, not particularly. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence

since this is explicitly against site guidelines... no, not particularly. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. If you want to learn about Kobe, tune into literally any other news outlet. edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tempsy 7y ago
"Most" is not "all." The fact that the biggest basketball player in a generation died is arguably a "new phenomenon." There's plenty of stories that are upvoted that are covered by the news. It's not really just about learning that he died so much as having a thoughtful conversation around him and his legacy from this community's perspective.
- buserror 7y ago
  Sorry but being from Europe, and not interested in TV sports, I didn't even know who he was. At all. I understand why they were flagged for that reason. Sometimes I see <xxx> has died and it's clearly technology related, and I will click the link, and discover that this person was great even if I never knew their names, and I feel enriched. I certainly wouldn't feel enriched being led to a basketball website.
  - quercus 7y ago
    There we go, the condescending attitude towards sports.
    - gdy 7y ago
      What's wrong with condescending attitude towards sports?
    - Turing_Machine 7y ago
      I don't think there's anything condescending about it. This just isn't a sports site. Observing that fact doesn't suggest or imply that sports are bad in any way. If you posted Bill Manning's obituary to a bunch of NBA fan sites, the users of those sites would no doubt consider those posts off-topic, and they'd be right in doing so. But that wouldn't make them "condescending toward computer science".
- m_ke 7y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=false&query=has%20died&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=fal... https://hn.algolia.com/?q=has+died https://hn.algolia.com/?q=has+died Actors and Musicians dying doesn't get flagged.
papeda 7y ago
Just last week Terry Jones' obituary received hundreds of upvotes here and in many other places. I guess users are flagging Kobe but not Terry Jones because they like Jones more. But this is explicitly what flagging is not supposed to be about.
- samatman 7y ago
  Terry Jones was a member of Monty Python, which gave us the word "spam" for unwanted email, and the Python programming language. I would call that sufficiently on-topic, personally.
  - pushpop 7y ago
    As I said elsewhere when that argument was made; it’s a very tenuous connection. Things named after him isn’t the same as things he was directly involved in. I love Monty Python but it’s disingenuous to claim they they’re any more “on topic” than a basketball player (and I say this as someone who’s not generally a sports fan). The only real difference between the two is one is more popular on HN than the other. Which is a real shitty reason to flag an obituary in my opinion.
    - samatman 7y ago
      Monty Python is specifically mentioned in the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker-humor.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker-humor.html And I'm fairly certain this predates esr's tenure (I used to own a copy of The Great Quux's hardcover). We're just going to have to agree to disagree here.
      - pushpop 7y ago
        > Monty Python is specifically mentioned in the Jargon File: That just reinforces that things were named after Monty Python rather than Monty Python creating the tech! > We're just going to have to agree to disagree here. You haven’t actually disagreed with my point though.
rvz 7y ago
> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. Now that’s what I call nonsensical. By that logic with the recent Cambridge Analytica scandals, the US and China trade wars, etc have all been top on HN and covered on the news, meaning that HN broke their own rules. Perhaps when the UK decides to use or ban Huawei for its 5G technology, as soon as it mentions the UK PM’s name, I won’t be surprised if this gets flag/dead quickly.
- samatman 7y ago
  May I suggest reading the paragraph as a whole statement, rather than a series of isolated sentences which must each stand on their own? That would be the good faith thing to do.

tempsy 7y ago

"Most" is not "all." The fact that the biggest basketball player in a generation died is arguably a "new phenomenon." There's plenty of stories that are upvoted that are covered by the news. It's not really just about learning that he died so much as having a thoughtful conversation around him and his legacy from this community's perspective.

buserror 7y ago
Sorry but being from Europe, and not interested in TV sports, I didn't even know who he was. At all. I understand why they were flagged for that reason. Sometimes I see <xxx> has died and it's clearly technology related, and I will click the link, and discover that this person was great even if I never knew their names, and I feel enriched. I certainly wouldn't feel enriched being led to a basketball website.
- quercus 7y ago
  There we go, the condescending attitude towards sports.
  - gdy 7y ago
    What's wrong with condescending attitude towards sports?
  - Turing_Machine 7y ago
    I don't think there's anything condescending about it. This just isn't a sports site. Observing that fact doesn't suggest or imply that sports are bad in any way. If you posted Bill Manning's obituary to a bunch of NBA fan sites, the users of those sites would no doubt consider those posts off-topic, and they'd be right in doing so. But that wouldn't make them "condescending toward computer science".
m_ke 7y ago
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=false&query=has%20died&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=fal... https://hn.algolia.com/?q=has+died https://hn.algolia.com/?q=has+died Actors and Musicians dying doesn't get flagged.

papeda 7y ago

Just last week Terry Jones' obituary received hundreds of upvotes here and in many other places. I guess users are flagging Kobe but not Terry Jones because they like Jones more. But this is explicitly what flagging is not supposed to be about.

samatman 7y ago
Terry Jones was a member of Monty Python, which gave us the word "spam" for unwanted email, and the Python programming language. I would call that sufficiently on-topic, personally.
- pushpop 7y ago
  As I said elsewhere when that argument was made; it’s a very tenuous connection. Things named after him isn’t the same as things he was directly involved in. I love Monty Python but it’s disingenuous to claim they they’re any more “on topic” than a basketball player (and I say this as someone who’s not generally a sports fan). The only real difference between the two is one is more popular on HN than the other. Which is a real shitty reason to flag an obituary in my opinion.
  - samatman 7y ago
    Monty Python is specifically mentioned in the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker-humor.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker-humor.html And I'm fairly certain this predates esr's tenure (I used to own a copy of The Great Quux's hardcover). We're just going to have to agree to disagree here.
    - pushpop 7y ago
      > Monty Python is specifically mentioned in the Jargon File: That just reinforces that things were named after Monty Python rather than Monty Python creating the tech! > We're just going to have to agree to disagree here. You haven’t actually disagreed with my point though.

rvz 7y ago

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. Now that’s what I call nonsensical. By that logic with the recent Cambridge Analytica scandals, the US and China trade wars, etc have all been top on HN and covered on the news, meaning that HN broke their own rules. Perhaps when the UK decides to use or ban Huawei for its 5G technology, as soon as it mentions the UK PM’s name, I won’t be surprised if this gets flag/dead quickly.

samatman 7y ago
May I suggest reading the paragraph as a whole statement, rather than a series of isolated sentences which must each stand on their own? That would be the good faith thing to do.