Celebrity death news is banal. If there has never been a front page article about someone’s lived actions, we should not have one upon their death.
I'm struggling to find how this type of comment is considered interesting. HN is a social voting site for startup guys and hacker types. If enough users upvote a story within some time frame (and nothing more involved happens with the moderation), it goes to the front page. Simple as that, and has been discussed at least a hundred times.
So whether someone can "figure" why hackers would find this news interesting or not, hackers did find it interesting and upvoted it.
And why not? Hackers are not one-dimensional computer geeks. They have curiosity, they care for music, they care for pop culture (not to mention movies, comics, etc), they care for games, they care for science, they care for a thousand things...
It's also not about the fact that some "celebrity died".
Little Richard for starters is hardly a current celebrity. Obvious as his figure is to oldsters, most 20- 30-somethings today would't even know about him, except in encyclopedical terms ("some old rock n' roll guy from the fifties?") - if that.
He is celebrated by those who know about him not because of some contemporary popularity, but for what he did 65-70 years ago. Which included significant contributions to pop culture, rock music, gay representation, and other things besides. Things hackers can, and apparently do, find interesting.
Also, keep in mind that flagging a submission is often not meant as anything more than a downvote. Whether that's appropriate or not, that's what happens.
IIRC I didn't downvote Kobe's death post(s) myself, but that was purely because I was curious to read theories about what happened with the helicopter. That's how little I care about that guy. At the same time, I know very little about Litle John, uh, Richard, but I've just spent a good hour watching videos and reading articles, because I do care about Rock 'n Roll! Your whining aside, this submission was well worth my upvote.
Must have been somewhat interesting if you decided to write a few paragraphs in response.
> HN is a social voting site for startup guys and hacker types.
Nope. It's for one or the either. Not both. It was never for the latter and frankly, it's less and less about about the former.
> Things hackers can, and apparently do, find interesting.
Right and "hackers" can question it as well.
I found both you and the parent interesting in your own little ways.
That's what Little Richard did. When he claimed that everyone that came after, copied him, he was right. He showed what was possible in a way that no one else could even conceive. The slack-jawed response from AC/DC's vocalist? Yeah, that was everyone.
I mean, I personally don't even particularly like his music, but I absolutely can acknowledge what he did, and just how unique his contributions were. I think his death is absolutely worthy of note on a site like this one.