DON'T SUBMIT: 1) If it adds nothing new to the discussion. Just a regurgitation of things already said. 2) If it's something that can be obtained very easily elsewhere. Already on NY Times, CNN, etc. 3) If it amounts to nothing more than a tribute. (Nothing wrong with these intrinsically, but this isn't really the forum for them.) 4) If it is overtly politically charged.

DO SUBMIT: 1) If it provides a genuinely new or original analysis of the event itself, what lessons can be learned, what lessons should have been learned, etc. 2) If it is thought provoking and has the potential to spark meaningful discussion.

I think if we followed these (or similar) guidelines then that would cut out the majority of the fluff pieces, so that anything 9/11-related that does make it through the filter will be better received.

tl;dr - Think before you post.

On a more personal note, however, I wouldn't mind it if the mods were a little extra strict with regards to relevance.

Sure, but that has nothing to do with any particular event.

Second thought. Great idea, but let's pivot. I'm just gonna walk away from HN for the coming days instead.

Emotion's out, so that leaves word count, spelling & grammar, font choice, or distance in miles the author lives from the center of Palo Alto. I dunno. I'm open to other suggestions.

I think it's getting a little out of hand. There this entre-automaton thing happening that bums me out. I get that HN is here to scratch a specific itch. But that itch is (fundamentally) the desire to create value. New value. FOR PEOPLE.

You know, people out there. (looks out window, rubs eyes).

They make decisions based on emotion all the time (and so do I). So if the monotony of impending 9/11 anniversary stories has you really troubled, maybe you can at least look at it as some sort of anthropological study. Customer research?

Seriously, I do find it at least a little bit ironic that you're afraid that something this important to that many people is going to distract you from.. you know, building things to sell to them.

1. I disagree with the contention that the anniversary is as important to as many people as you imply. It is important and should be commemorated with quiet, personal reflection IMHO and not a media onslaught.

2. Even if I am wrong about 1 it doesn't mean that HN is the place for its commemoration.

What I do believe are very appropriate posts are technology related ones that we would normally be interested in on a day to day basis, but with the afterthought of knowing that 9/11 served as an extreme case. Things that come to mind are airline security, building construction, communications during / after disasters, and our political rights with respect to technology.

You can count me in.

1. Coverage similar acts (for example, ones covering the January Tucson shooting) gets removed at the time of the event.

2. The subject will be over-covered in totality elsewhere

I doubt that coverage of 9/11 would meet the "interesting and unique" criteria that HN news items should live up to.

- Those who comment? (These are hopefully looking for good content/topic for which to discuss)

- Those who lurk? (It should not matter for this group, they will just skip over the topics if need be.)

- Those who up vote? (This group in terms of the front page will push it to top and may not necessarily even read the article)

Since the group is actually all of the above, then the long tail new users (1 year and less) [I am assuming it is a long tail, it would be great to have data to back this] will be dominant and no matter what you do once it massively popular (not necessarily on topic) it will remain on the front page.

My personal workaround is to assume the users who signed up earlier in HN maintain a certain scope and flag and vote as appropriate and roll with news.ycombinator.com/classic for the next few days until it dies down.

That isn't what this site is for, and we should be savagely flagging anything that doesn't fit the profile. Or this will turn into another Slashdot/Digg/Reddit/etc that is flooded with non-tech stories. It'll mean another site pops up, and we all migrate there and repeat the business.

HN isn't a country founded on democratic ideals, it's a social news site intended for intellectually stimulating discussion. It's not intended for political demagoguery or sentimentality, which is what 99% of stories about 9/11 are going to be.

2. You suggest that my opinion of 9/11 is invalid because I am not American. You object to 'censorship' but are happy with excluding opinion based on national origin. Odd.

That said, what's your Meyer-Briggs? For my own personal research, not being snarky, I just have a hypothesis. :)