I found the story very interesting, but I agree with the removal of this story. It wasn't Hacker News, it was an interesting story about Michael Jackson. I would have been very happy to read that story on Reddit.
"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
Also keep in mind that some of us no longer follow Reddit, so we might prefer if HN took a slightly broader view than Erlang innards.
In my opinion something is on-topic if most hackers would find it interesting, and most non-hackers would not. Otherwise you might as well just drop the "Hacker", and call it "News".
In all actuality, I do sympathize with the rational for your proposed metric. I'm just pointing out that the nuance and angle of a story can push something distinctly into that category in cases where simply reading the title might lead one to have a "Not HN!" spasm.
So, although I found the article interesting, it wasn't what I come here for.
Mostly that the high signal to noise with this community and the way it better expresses the stuff i'm currently thinking about. However, in specific regard to this thread- and as others have pointed out - the topic for me specifically highlighted the hacker like work ethic that MJ seems to have exhibited, which I very much enjoyed reading.
I do feel that some of HN has turned into a first post mentality, which is a shame - especially as i've seen on front page two posts which were essentially cnet and yahoo both posting the same story.
So I'm all for more varied content - God knows an echo chamber would suck - but with the knowledge that we're here to share information and knowledge that has improved or enriched our lives. Anything else is just showmanship.