If your definition of "technical solution" is as broad as to mean "any code change at all", then by definition, all changes will be technical. But at least the first two options here are social, not technical (though of course, as with any change on the site, they will require code to change them).
Re:A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
by erichocean on Saturday August 18, 2012 @02:19AM
(#4400400)
> I'm not clear on how changing the user interface isn't a technical solution
Because by "user interface", we mean "human interface" or "people interface". Such changes are human-/people-oriented, pretty much by definition.
pg's "solution" is purely technical, since the human interface wouldn't change at all.
I didn't mean to imply that technical solutions wouldn't make a difference, even dramatic ones, just that they could not completely take the place of some manual effort.