"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."

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

So basically absolutely anything that is not internet memes is on the table. I would love it if Hacker News had a section of their site that was targeted specifically to news about programming. Then I could treat reddit as reddit and hacker news could have the programming news I want.

I have been following hacker news for years, and it seems that the subject of the articles has been slowly straying from the topic of programming to more general interest. I don't mean to pick on this article specifically.

In a way, I think making a programming only section was what turned reddit into the non-programming centric site it is now.

If you maintain one view, there is enough pressure on the main page to sustain the programming articles rather than just say "go to the programming section".

franklinho, I think the programmers have been slowly losing the war on popular articles on HN. As HN gains popularity amongst non-programmers, programmers that want actual hacker news will need to look elsewhere. I suppose that is why someone made https://lobste.rs/. BTW, could someone please invite me to lobste.rs?

I wonder if pg has considered revisiting the phrasing here. In some ways I suspect the much broader "anything goes" acceptance of topics has had a spillover effect in lowering the quality of comments as well.

The "War" against scientology was one of the driving forces that thrusted "Anonymous" into the limelight. In a way, I think this has made stories about scientology somewhat related to HN.

Meh, doesnt hurt to post the content and let the voting system do its work. If its not meant for HN then it wont reach HN.

Not to mention, the handy "flag" link for those who feel strongly about it. There isn't much need to make a post about it, with the mechanisms in place.

Thank you, I forgot about the flag link. It is not just this article, I've been noticing a trend in general about the non-programming, non-startup subject matter of many of the articles that have been gaining popularity.

the xenu.net hosting issues and copyright would have been relevant to HN, but the other parts, not so much.

I agree with you and flagged the article.

Understanding human psychology/behavior is very important to startups; It's a big part UI/UX design, pricing strategy, etc.

Also, some companies that developers work for use somewhat similar psychological tactics to pressure their employees into working 100-hour weeks (thus keeping them isolated from the outside world). While they probably don't go as far as beatings and imprisonment, managers have certainly been known to use intense psychological pressure and public humiliation to ensure that employees devote their lives to their jobs. I realize that this analogy between corporations and religious cults isn't precise, but it may still be worth exploring.

Ha. That's funny, but I do get the impression that you are trolling me. Either way, good one. Yes, let's take inspiration from these interrogation/torture cells and channel it into our new UI/UX. I call this new layout Stockholm.

Do you really see no correlation in the knowledge used to build a religion vs a brand? The outcome is certainly different but your leveraging very similar concepts in both activities.

I don't. If you get that correlation, and it is helping you with your branding, then I guess good for you. I just feel that this article is off topic for HN.