> The fact that it is on top demonstrates that it is doing the trick.

Demonstrate? Really? What about the other possibilities?

- An uncatched click-ring pulled it up.

- The HN crowd has been tricked to upvote something that do not "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" (would not be the first time).

- This "intellectual curiosity" is misunderstood. I remember a friend's friend who had a big collection of porn. He told us blantly that he did watch them only out of curiosity and interest... Yes. But, you know, I also feel mildly titillated when checking gossips about some topic I am interested in, eg. Mr Facebook wedding pics, and could easily mistake this for "intellectual curiosity gratification", but it is not, or anything is and the filter becomes useless.