I agree that it is a stretch.

-4 already eh ? Did I offend someone ?

Yes, by violating this guideline: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link."

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Over time this place has become much more general and wide in scope. Some people cherish this, some don't.

But it is interesting that those that don't, can only flag and shut up. No discussion of "is this needed here" is tolerated. But dozens of MJ stories are perfectly OK.

Exactly. It seems that a knee jerk reaction ('flag') is more in line with expectations than any kind of moderate reaction to sense whether or not this kind of article belongs here. As I said it was an interesting read, which nuanced my viewpoint.

The bury brigade seems to be more than content to punish any kind of 'non adherence to the rules'. That makes it simple for me, next time I'll flag, interesting read or not.

A well thought out response to some question that gets relatively little traction here will gain you one or two points, but a 'faux pas' in a popular article that doesn't really belong here will get you -10 in total.

You offended me, by suggesting that Michael Jackson posts can all be easily grouped together. This one was fascinating and in-depth.