[ckdot]

Why is this posted on HN, even twice? It’s not like other news sources won’t announce this. The pope had its good and bad sides, but in the end we should remind ourselves he’s just a human being. It’s OK for HN to inform about people here, but shouldn’t they be somehow related to any topics HN touches? The popes was just a guy who somehow got popular because of some quite successful religion - but I’d personally prefer keep religion out of HN.

[tomhow]

It's conventional for there to be a thread on HN when a major pubic figure dies. If you look at the list of obituary posts on HN [1], several of the biggest were for politicians, royals, and others unrelated to computer science and technology.

It's in keeping with the convention that stories that have "significant new information" are on topic for HN, and that includes major mainstream news stories when they first break.

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=%22has+died%22

[heresie-dabord]

Cheers! Good idea to provide the search example with Algolia!

[raphman]

Two thoughts:

- The pope was not only a very important religious and political leader but also wrote and spoke about the relationship between humans and technology [1, 2]

- I joined Hacker News due to its links but stayed for the community of smart and thoughtful people (and the great moderation). Oftentimes, a HN submission acts as a seed crystal for "off-topic" discussions that people want to talk about. As the people that make up this community get older, and as the times change, the topics we discuss change, too. At some level, technology always has political, moral, ideological implications. For me, HN is one of the best places to discuss these.

[1] https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pu...

[2] Tim Cook on how Pope Francis influenced his thinking: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1541230109287507

[whycome]

> Why is this posted on HN

This isn't a headline service or newswire. It's a place for discussion too. He was the head of a large institution that has a lot of influence. And the views of the institution on emergent technologies is very much relevant. Those views are greatly shaped by the one at the top for their stint. This post isn't about religion.

[yencabulator]

Meanwhile, anything about Trump is insta-flagged. Look at your criteria.

[erikig]

He was the head of one of the largest and oldest institutions that was working to handle its successes and failures as it worked to modernize.

[cebert]

I concur. I believe that political and religious discussions are better suited for other platforms rather than HN. I am not particularly interested in the Pope, if I were, I could find coverage of the topic on mainstream news sources. There’s nothing interesting here from a technical or startup perspective.

[numpad0]

Someone's running bot farm to manipulate this website. There's been tons of dupes and suspicious flagging lately.

[basisword]

Why have you posted the same general comment twice after the first was flagged? As the rules suggest, if you disagree with the post - flag it.