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That's about as good an explanation as I think anyone could give. Thank you for shedding some light on it. Seriously.

I upvoted you for upvoting him, even though I'll get downvoted for saying this.

It's a testament to the worth of Hacker News that after literally an entire day of the vocal community calling an MJ article on HN blasphemy, the truth rings out with 100 karma.

There are events in this world that permeate the public consciousness.

No there are some events for which Mass Media swarms like piranhas. It's some sort of demonic combination of cheap to cover and lowest common denominator.

The result is a absolutely horrifying. It's death gawking.

Since yesterday the MSM has been all about this admittedly tragic event. And not just the TV, the radio too.

My alarm in the morning is the radio news summary. Except today with all that's going on the world, all that's happening with Iran, the ENTIRE news block was about this.

The reporters were throwing to each other each reporting some detail of the death, with the last sentence being: "Preliminary autopsy results are expected as early as tonight!"

How fucked up is that?

And the radio during my morning commute, yep wall to wall coverage.

Michael Jackson's tragic death makes all other topics seem irrelevant? WTF!

As you yourself say, this is thoroughly covered in every other media outlet. This is not a signal to gawk at this tragedy here as well.

This is sad, but it is NOT important. And it certainly isn't in need of extra attention.

This: http://iran.whyweprotest.net/keeping-your-anonymity-iran/114...

On the other hand IS important and hacker related.

Do you listen to NPR? They do a great job of not getting caught up on celebrity stories.

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3...

That's Morning Edition's rundown today/yesterday/the morning after his death. In 2 hours (more? not sure how long Morning Edition is, but it's long), they had 4 stories, totaling under 15 minutes. And that's probably double what they've had about any celebrity in 1 show this year.

> the question becomes "is this event big enough to justify such an exception?"

If that's the question, what's the added value of putting it here as well. If it's already big enough to justify an exception, it's big enough to be mentioned everywhere.

Surely the question should be: "Will the discussion on HN be interesting?" Since the discussion is mostly meta-commentary, I'm inclined to say it isn't.

I think the comments on HackerNews are still a whole lot more interesting than the average YouTube/Facebook/Myspace-style "OMG lolololol!!1111"-type comments that one would find on most other websites.

"Michael Jackson, whose prime was before my birth by the way, is the Icon of icons. His exit from the world is a once in a life time event that affects everyone."

His prime was during my lifetime, and while I respect what he did, his passing makes zero difference in my life. As best I can tell, he reached and passed his peak. (Not that his not-quite-peak stuff wasn't or wouldn't have been good, but it could not match the effect of Thriller)

His death is sad, as are most deaths, but hardly earth-shattering, and certainly not "once in a lifetime", given that people such Elvis, MLK, and JFK died during my lifetime as well.

Maybe it's our age difference.

Age difference. A child born the day that Elvis died would be 31 today. John Lennon was shot when they were three years old.

For them, "The King" is a golden oldie, not pop music. They can't imagine that he was ever controversial, or even relevant.

I agree with this reasoning. I'm just surprised at the event that gets the exception.

I hacker is, by definition, lazy in the smart meaning. A good hacker knows when you don't have to repeat work, and what is going on here? More discussion of the same thing; empty vagaries on the life of a strange man. This conversion of what MJ has left behind as a legacy and his life experiences is discussed elsewhere. For that matter it is being discussed /everywhere/.

We've all heard all about this subject, is it necessary to discuss a topic that can't be brought meaning through technical discussions or rational discourse?

One of the best comments in HN about HN-Eligibility.

May I add by saying that everytime there is a question of HN-Eligibility (every other day!),we should hot-link it here to this post by TomOfTTB. Better yet add it to the FAQ!

There can be only 1 best selling album of all time. And that album is Thriller by Michael Jackson.

Uh ... Except at each point in time, there can be a different best selling album. It's not as if it's now a universal constant, that can never change, is it?

On the other hand, with the concept of "album" feeling slightly old-school, perhaps that makes it less probably that the king is ever dethroned, who knows.

It's not as if it's now a universal constant, that can never change, is it?

I'd be willing to bet a large amount of money that it will never change.

..just checked the best selling albums list:

  Best seller of 90s: 42 million copies
  Best seller of 00s: 24 million copies
  Thriller: 100+ million copies

What is your source?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_wor...

I doubt his record will ever be dethroned, partly due to changes in the musical landscape.

There's been a great divergence in musical tastes since the 80's, probably aided by the increased availability of "niche" music that would have had too small an audience to be profitable in the past - dollars that would have gone to the #1 album are now being spread down "the long tail."

Michael Jackson's popularity also seemed to cut across racial lines and some age lines in a way that doesn't happen anymore. Can you imagine the same audience listening to Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg? Tren Reznor's fans listening to Miley Cyrus? Jackson had a genre-crossing power.

it’s a community that holds rationality above all else. It is not rational to stick to strict rules no matter what

Wow! Well said.

And as others suggested, its worth providing a link to this from the FAQ.

Michael Jackson was a celebrity has-been who made mediocre music.

His death truly affects few, let alone profoundly.

The fact it's covered on every news station indicates it's probably not news and reason enough not to include here.

His death truly affects few, let alone profoundly.

I'm not an MJ fan and I never will be, but your comment is just overly myopic.

I know people who were impacted profoundly by his music and no doubt when I next see them, I will find out that his death has also affected them profoundly. Just because I personally am not affected in the slighest does not mean that I cannot understand why others will be.

That's funny, because myopic is exactly how I would describe the attention this is getting.

I guess it depends on your definition of "profound." I know people who are profoundly affected in the same sense when their fantasy football team loses.

Sounds like my definition of "profound" may contain a lower amount of pretentiousness than yours.

People are moved by many and varied things in this world. Often it's not necessarily the importance or the profundity of the thing its self (in this case Michael Jackson's music) but the associations that the individual connects to that thing.

You mock how someone could be affected by such things as their fantasy football team and by implication, Michael Jackson's music. I only see this as an indication that you have very little insight into the inner workings of your own mind or that of anyone else's.

Nope, I hate when my FF team loses. But I recognize it doesn't really matter and I think most people will have only a superficial feeling of loss.

The commenter above called this a "once in a lifetime event" that "has a profound impact on almost everyone." I don't think so, but maybe I'm too pretentious or lack insight. Thanks for that.

An FF team loses many times and wins also, the king of pop dies once only. This has effected me, I am not sure about profoundly, but to some extent. Mostly because I, like many others of whatever age, grew up with his music and I personally felt a sort of anger that he was covered into all sorts of personal controversy rather than allowed to give this world more of his talent through other great albums that he would have made.

There is a sort of sadness to his later life which I believe will be used as the example of the culture of the 21st century media. Media can kill! This is a man who like Tesla offered the world so much and yet died so low. It speaks a lot about the society we live in. You do not need to like his music, or the guy, or his dance moves, but it would be hard to deny that Michael has entertained the world like no one else I've experienced and his record proves that.

When the queen will die, here in the UK at least, I am sure that everyone will drop whatever they are doing to share the moment because she is a person loved greatly. If the US and perhaps the world entertainment had a King, that is Michael and I believe that he is greatly loved.

I wish him peace and I wish that the world learns from this sad tragedy. He will be remembered as the King of Pop for sure, but he also tests our prejudices - our judging of him as a freak because he wanted to change his nose - our ignorance of the effect that his skin colour might have had on him personally - our refusal to understand the profound effect that his childhood had on him, instead to insist that he judged according to conventions, a grown man does not have a playing ground park, as a freak - but above all our irrational mania with Michael as the person rather than the artist. This is like being more interested in what Einstein ate for dinner, rather than his relative theory, or being more interested that some great author does drugs than some magnificent novel he has written. The world now grieves, not only because this man had so much talent, but because this talent killed him!

I agree that it would usually be kind of silly to have any sort of profound association with one's FF team losing. My point was only that seemingly unimportant things can still have a profound effect on people, by associated feelings, if nothing else. Even if I don't share their feelings on this particular occasion, I can understand where they might come from.

His death affects ticket brokers... I got a 3 pack of tickets two days ago for his final show; they were just about the best seats on the market and I would have been able to sell two of them for enough to very comfortably finance my trip to see Michael Jackson in person.

So I'm personally affected in that I'm out $1000+ in potential profit and I'm missing the chance to see the King of Pop perform. It is a sad day for lovers of music.

You're being downvoted, but you're right to point out the commercial knock-on effect this will have. My sympathies are with all of the people involved in producing the forthcoming comeback tour - that would have been the shining diamond in nearly all of their résumes (dancers, lighting folks, producers, audio technicians, etc) and likely have changed many of their careers.

I actually am expecting them to utilize the current production planning for a series of tribute shows. Any number of singers would be happy to sing, and it is a waste for all the production planning to amount to nothing.

Current rumor from the British tabloids is that Justin Timberlake will do it. I am sure he can sell out at least a few dates.

I know you're joking, but personally I'd find Timberlake doing a whole MJ set far more entertaining than the real thing.

I am completely serious. I am sure Timberlake has offered, at this point it is up to Michael Jackson's family to decide what kind of tribute show they want to do as they have been inundated with offers.

And in case you forgot... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15SxqqwF63U&feature=relat...

I'm going to disagree with you about his music, even though I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan, because he had a killer groove. But Jackson was never a musician first and foremost. He was a dancer. He was the best dancer of this last half century, bar none. He was the dancer that inspired enormous movements in dance. When he performed for Motown, none other than Fred Astaire, king of the old dancers, called him to congratulate him. I'm not a big fan of dance, but watching Michael in action was like watching a man defy physics. The way he moved inspired me to start working out and treating my body properly; because of him I want to learn to dance. I'll never dance like him, but he showed me that my body was an instrument as much as anything manmade can be.

To his death, he still had those moves. Just because he became the center of a freakish media circus doesn't mean he'd lost all talent. In fact, he's one of the few celebrities who never seemed to like his celebrity. He didn't get coked up or destroy things. The controversies surrounding him are all ones he wished would go away. He remained famous first and foremost for his incredible talent.

Fantastic dancer and killer vocalist. One of the best male vocalists ever.

In the Jackson 5 and up to Thriller he had a gorgeous voice, even if his pop wasn't exactly cutting-edge in any other way.