> I tried to check out the categories
Hm, okay!
> But when prompted for a login/sign-up, I lost interest.
This is a one I cannot remove that fast (due to the way backend processes these categories), but I'm just curious, why did you loose an interest? I mean, yes, it requires login, and so?
Two reasons:
1. The posts I'd find most interesting in the site are ones related to astronomy and applied machine learning. If there wasn't anything on astronomy (or physics) then I probably wouldn't use the site in the long run.
2.HN is a news aggregator. Most links that reach the front page have something interesting to offer. If I can't access the part of the site I find interesting, then I'll like go back to HN and find another post. (This isn't something I'd love to admit, but oh well.)
Okay, gotcha, I think I have an idea how to fix this :)
> Most links that reach the front page have something interesting to offer.
Synthical has this functionality (I mean, "Top articles") in the right bar, but yep, I understand what you mean