It's nothing personal, it's just that we don't want even ten other inhabitatants of Montreal commenting about that fact, just because the protagonist of a post lives there.
There are always many more people that can add relatively low quality comments to a discussion, for instance by solely making a joke or recounting some personal connection to the OP. The quality of the average comment on HN is high, partly because the low quality kinds of comments are discouraged, so they don't drown out the high quality comments.
There are always many more people that can add relatively low quality comments to a discussion, for instance by solely making a joke or recounting some personal connection to the OP. The quality of the average comment on HN is high, partly because the low quality kinds of comments are discouraged, so they don't drown out the high quality comments.