I'm not sure if PHP vs. Ruby is of interest to hackers. I do know that I have a vote for that article and I have a vote for your opinion, and that mechanism allows me to express my thoughts on what I'd like to see on the front page.

You don't need to tell me why you feel that PHP vs. Ruby does to belong on the front page, you need simply vote. On the other hand, if there is some reason why you feel the existing voting mechanism is broken in some way such that PHP vs. Ruby keeps making it to the front page despite the fact that "Good hackers do not find PHP bashing interesting," that is an "interesting new phenomena" that I would like to understand.

Disclosure: My two most recent homoiconic posts could be described as "Ruby bashing."