It's interesting for historical purposes to see if the tastes of the "old timers" are different from the tastes of the "newcomers." It would be hard to measure

It's interesting for historical purposes to see if the tastes of the "old timers" are different from the tastes of the "newcomers." It would be hard to measure this directly simply by comparing the front page from 2008 to today, because different articles will have been posted on different days, so a direct comparison is imposssible. By simply seeing what old-timers vote on vs what everybody votes on, you can make a better apples-to-apples comparison. Not a perfect one, of course, because many old-timers may have quit long ago if HN had changed too drastically, and similarly their own ideas of what HN should be may have changed.