In fairness, I think its because Hacker News is mostly about things that are matters of opinion, or at least worthy of four pages on the subject. Stack Overflo

In fairness, I think its because Hacker News is mostly about things that are matters of opinion, or at least worthy of four pages on the subject. Stack Overflow aims to be about one or two definitively correct, short and usable answers to specific, well-bounded, problems.