We played around with customization options like that (URL parameters etc.), but ultimately decided against it. The reasoning behind it was that a lack of personalization might be a feature not a bug for a news aggregator like HN. One issue that arises with personalization is that it is detrimental to a sense of shared experience and we thought that the global frontpage might be a distinct reason for the sense of community on HN.

This issue was also discussed previously on HN: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31375092