But the moment someone posts something of somewhat niche interest that is not about America or SV tech, some begin the usual complaints about it being off-topic.
This is just weird to see. And FWIW, I do not think this story is "just news"
I’m arguing that this ambulance-chaser upvoting pattern on is an unhealthy thing for the community to do and that the offtopic guideline advises against it, regardless of the fact that I particularly love talking about some of these Breaking News events, too. Yes, the users and the mods disregard that off-topic guideline all the time, allowing popularity to outweigh the guidelines several times a day. No, I’m just as upset by this on topics I care about discussing personally. But someone has to stand up for the community against members mobthink once in a whole, however hopeless it is to do so. Thankfully, most of the time I just stay silent - life is too busy to tilt every windmill. It was fun to try otherwise here, but don’t worry, I’ll go back to letting the mob do its thing after this.
Definitely looking forward to engaging with the topic once there’s more to read and say about what caused it and these various noisy threads are a distant memory :)