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Comment by notatoad | Hacker News Reader

I think it's probably because he just kept trying so hard. There are other apple blogs, but nobody is quite as fanatical as gruber is. Also, despite the crazy amount of apple stuff he finds to post about, he actually does have a filter for crap - he doesn't bother with most of the more wild rumours or non-news like obscure patents apple filed for 5 years ago.

He's a blatant apple fanboy, but unlike most others he's not a stupid fanboy.

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Exactly. If I read a review of an Apple product there, I know I'm going to be reading a positive one, but it's the clear details he goes into, the fact that they're reasonably well-written, and the interesting and relevant observations he makes along the way that I enjoy reading (and that I believe is noticeably lacking in many other sources of writing online, especially relating to technology).

"He's a blatant apple fanboy, but unlike most others he's not a stupid fanboy."

Very nice. I think tikhonj's comment from below applies better here instead.

Are you using "fanboy" to mean something other than "a male who is a fan?" Usually, "fanboy" is used pejoratively to refer to someone that claims fandom without thinking critically, or refuses to recognize flaws. On occasion, Gruber has arguably been guilty of that, but this article sounds perfectly fair and reasonable.

This article is reasonable because the new iPad actually is good. Gruber is the very definition of a fanboy.

The real reason that is there is a fanatical fanbase, especially among sites like HN, who not only make sure his posts get top billing but also flag posts by Windows enthusiasts and insiders like Paul Thurrott are flagged to death, so much so that that http://winsupersite.com is hellbanned from HN.

Haven't notice an actual big Microsoft announcement get far less votes than Gruber's snide and often factually wrong take on it? It's the community of fanboys and worshippers he has created.

It's probably not because this community tends to like one of those bloggers over the other, but rather because this community simply tends to be more interested in Apple products than Microsoft products. Since this site is designed to demonstrate the interests of its users, uninteresting articles will appear to be "blacklisted."

It doesn't just appear to be "blacklisted", it's really blacklisted. Copy pasting from my own comment from another post in this article since it's relevant here too:

Sure, that might explain why Thurott's articles don't make the front page and Gruber's do, but does it explain why they're completely hellbanned from HN from even appearing on the new page where people can actually see them and vote on it if they find it interesting?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408883

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