Idle reading is generally not interesting. Consider your average magazine, even one targeted to your interests - there are probably at most 2 stories that you r

Idle reading is generally not interesting. Consider your average magazine, even one targeted to your interests - there are probably at most 2 stories that you really want to read in the magazine, and maybe another 5 that you would actually be interested in reading, should you be stuck in the doctor's office or something, but there are probably a further 15 or 20 that you simply have no interest in, and are clearly there to fill space. When you have user generated content, it is much easier to fill any vacuum with content that is not content (this post) than it is to actually create content (very rare) or post or repost the content of others (very common). The people who post these outages are looking for something to talk about. The people who upvote these outages are part of the "culture" of github. The people who participate in the meager discussions are just bored, and nothing more. You should expect to be interested in no more than 20-30% of the content you see on HN on any given day. I anticipate that that number will go down with time.