Do we need 30 posts about Jobs on the front page? | Hacker News Reader

Do we need 30 posts about Jobs on the front page?

78 pointsbendauphinee40 comments

In my mind, I think not. It is tragic that he has died, and there is much coverage from many sites. However, I assume that other things are happening in the world around us?

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If this was a common occurrence, I'd understand your point. But as is, it hardly seems like a problem, or a sign of a broken system. Just take a 6 hour break.

Right now, it looks like a special tribute : The whole of the front page (30 stories) are all Jobs. For a short time, the front page was 20 stories, my guess is to achieve the same effect.

Everyone knew this day would come, which is why it's such a collective, moving (and organized) moment.

Personally, I'm more glad he got to see the tributes to his contribution to world karma when he stepped down as CEO. That was for him to savor, this is for us...

This is a filtered feed that removes "steve" "jobs" and "apple"

http://feeds.feedburner.com/hacker-news-filtered

I'll delete it after the weekend to respect PG.

This is probably going to last quite a bit longer than the 24 hour news cycle.

Thanks for the feed.

Any chance you can keep it around and make it customizable?

Legitimate articles not about Steve Jobs are currently being flagged down to 'dead' in the new section. In the meantime, my ability to flag articles has seemingly been revoked.

What an awesome system. What an awesome tribute.

Literally the most important single figure in all of computer technology just died, a man more popular and beloved than the President and the Pope combined, and you're upset because this frontpage will be afire with the news for a few hours? Christ.

Congratulations. This whining, right here, marks the beginning of the end of HN.

"Literally the most important single figure in all of computer technology just died"

That man died in 1954.

This type of hyperbole is disrespectful both to Jobs and to many important contributors. You can admire him and respect him, but it isn't necessary to fabricate cult-of-personality-like claims. This sort of thing diminishes the work he actually did do.

Give it a few hours. I'm sure tomorrow everything will filter out.

Unfortunately I can't flag down some of these posts ...

The community speaks - you have the choice to listen.

The community speaks that it is obsessed with Steve Jobs? How is that many posts of something we know about going to help me learn more about business, entrepreneurship, or programming?

I think it's a form of grieving. Not much point in wasting mental energy opposing it.

The community's job isn't serving your narrow interests. The community addresses its own needs.

For the moment, it needs this.

They were roughly simultaneous, and most have only a couple of comments each hours later. I don't think anybody is finding much value in actually reading all three dozen restatements of the same story. It was just a collective-action problem that HN doesn't have good tools for solving.

That may be.

But the truth is that if you had even a passing interest in technology from the 1970's or later, and you still have a pulse right now, there is not a single thing more worth discussing at this moment than the life and passing of this great man.

Yes.

Plus, anyone who wants something else can simply click "More" at the bottom of the page.

Why? Is there more insight to be added? Lets not confuse grieving with insightful technical conversation.

I think it's a side effect of many people submitting the story rather than explicitly upvoting it (in which case upvotes would cluster around one or two stories, as they do for the top ones). Since submissions count as upvotes, and there's a critical mass of people submitting each version of the story, they all end up on the front page. You'll notice there are a couple where the comments are alive, but in a situation like this (single story, many sources, many people submitting each without checking if it's already there), this is exactly what would happen.

It's also possible some people are hoping for a karma boost by submitting a story many others are likely to submit, and thus there is an incentive to submit a story on the gamble that noone else has done it yet, since many others are likely to submit it too.

From the authors, founders, luminaries, etc., of these posts, have you learned nothing more about business, entrepreneurship, or programming? The community may not be obsessed with Steve Jobs. Instead, obsessed with the innovation he has driven into this world. All of which, in turn, leads business, entrepreneurship, and programming.

Is your life so narrowly focused on HN that you can't take a day long break from learning about "business, entrepreneurship, or programming" and visit some other sites?

Steve Jobs's career literally defined the tech entrepreneur dream that this site is all about.

He can own it completely for a few hours. It's fine with me.

There is a lot of small, interesting news coming out as people tell stories. As someone who admires, uses and develops for the products produced by Apple, and has done for a long time, I'm personally curious to discover as much as I can. For me, it's been a great learning opportunity and also has prompted me to reflect on my own business (and life) practices. Major events are great impetuses.

Its just one day for someone who actually gave us a better vision into the relationship between human beings and technology. I think we can put up with it for one day.

It doesn't do a thing except make you feel better.

And celebrate a great persons life. What's wrong with that?

A single topic is pushing everything else off. That's what's wrong.

I disagree. It raises several old pieces for people who may not have seen them, and perhaps (re) engages discussion on some of these topics that are quite important to many of us.

On a few of the threads, I've seen some old user ID's crop up that I haven't seen here in a coon's age (slang for 'a long time', for those not familiar with the colloquialism -- coon is short for raccoon).

With all the Steve Jobs posts, I briefly thought the "jobs" tab was a special section for Steve.

Hackernews filtered http://jetsli.de/?query=-steve&sort=news.ycombinator.com...

This one is a bit better and contains the last 24 hours only http://jetsli.de/?query=-steve+-apple&time=last24&so...

I took a screenshot of it here: http://hackerbra.in/steve.png

I get a sense that there will be a vacuum in people's lives from now onward.

Yes. It will only happen once. Get over it.

not sure what you were hoping to do with this post, unless it was generating ill will towards yourself. if that was the case, mission accomplished.

Yeah, it makes me wish he lived forever.

Yes. Fuck off, come back in 3 days.

Be civil.

I'm just expressing how the thousands of people who voted up those stories feel.

That doesn't remove the need to be civil.

Short answer: Yes we do.

Slightly longer answer: It's not just a man who died, it's the movement that's dead with no successors in sight.

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