I'm actually really glad about this. For one, the Hiring Thread goes up today, and if you want to see all the madness, you've got Twitter, TechCrunch, and Reddit to supply you.
About the only thing I'll miss, is for the more impressive ones, technical explanations. But beyond that, it's nice to have a place to breathe.
I don't hang out on Twitter, TechCrunch, or Reddit. There is one day a year for such light-hearted japes... but apparently that's too many.
I see HN as a community, not a trove of tech and business documentation/explanations. The proper place for communal documentation is a wiki, not a forum. I mean, it's one day that the entire Anglo culture knows about, not just techies. You can gird your loins for one day, and have weeks in preparation for it.
Personally, I can do without the obituaries when someone famous dies. The single-to-noise ratio is so incredibly low - there's a small amount of discussion of what the person did (repeated so many times), and a whole lot of 'oh, sad to see they died'. But hey, if I wait, the whole thing will blow over in a day or two, no need to complain, nor pre-emptively get defensive about being the 'obituary police'. I mean, after all, when someone famous in tech dies, you've got Twitter, TechCrunch, and Reddit to supply you.
About the only thing I'll miss, is for the more impressive ones, technical explanations. But beyond that, it's nice to have a place to breathe.