Maybe I'm just coming from a different perspective having only ever worked for a small company, but I don't exactly find a chef to be noteworthy, at least not in any technical sense.

Let me put it another way, aside from the employees of Google or Facebook, what has this man done that would make him interesting to the rest of the people on this site? What did he do that makes him noteworthy? I'm sure he was a good man and all, but what does he matter to me? By all means, if there is something noteworthy, please let me know, otherwise why was this posted?

You are coming from a bit of an asshole perspective. While hacker news guidelines are certainly useful in the majority of links posted, I am sure they can be bent for a death notice that may personally move members of the community.

Additionally, as has already begun on this thread, there are certainly interesting thoughts that can sprout from the initial link given even a modicum of intellectual curiosity -- how social networks and online communities can deal with death, for example, or how support staff should be integrated into company culture.

At any rate, enough other people have found the post interesting or relevant enough to upvote it.

You really are being that guy. If it bothers you so much, why not just skip the thread?

The content on the front page is whatever members have decided merits the attention of the community. Clearly it affects a number of HN readers or else it would not have made it to the front page.

Before this was "Hacker News" it was "Startup News". Due to historical / cultural reasons, a large base of the readership of HN are people from, or with connections to, Silicon Valley and the companies there. A lot of people on HN have probably been touched by Mr. Desimone in some way, and more than a few people here may have known him personally. IOW, he might not have been a "hacker" (or maybe he was, who knows?) but he's part of the "HN family" in a sense. That's why his passing gets a mention here, despite the fact that he may not have been notable to hackers in any other regard.

If my custodian passed away, I would be tremendously sad, although he never touched a computer in his life except to see pictures of his baby granddaughter. He is a wonderful person and a great friend to have around the office. Everyone loves him, and he is a much a member of the team as anyone else. We bounce ideas off him all the time, and although he sometimes has no idea what we're talking about he does his best to be an ear to whisper into. And in the the company I work for, I might be the only employee on HN.

Now multiply that by the thousands of employees from Facebook or Google who are here. Does this new affect them? Hell yes it does. You know what "doesn't matter to me"? The death of Douglas Engelbart. Sure he invented a lot of things that I use every day, but I never knew him and I never even paid him a thought until I heard he had died. But plenty of others had, and did, and mourned him. And I mourned alongside them, for we had collectively lost someone great that I never had the honor of knowing.

In short, try to be a decent human being and respect the mourning of others. This post is one our of thirty on the main page, and yet this is the one you choose to shit all over. Find something that interests you more.

Please stop. What you're doing is not appropriate.

While his comments may come off as insensitive to some people, merely expressing an opinion, even one that may be unpopular or disagreed with, is not inappropriate in any way.

I encourage him to not stop expressing his true thoughts on this subject, as well as on any other subject that may come up. The uninhibited exchange of ideas is what makes for truly interesting and insightful discussion. Once political correctness or avoiding hurt feelings overtakes free expression, further discussion becomes pointless.

There is the right place and the right time for expressing dissenting opinion. An announcement about someone passing away is simply not it. I don't know how else I could explain this. This is just basic decency.

This is a perfectly acceptable time and place to discuss anything relating to this matter.

The decent thing for everyone here to do is to express their true opinions, regardless of how others may interpret them.

Holding back, or not expressing one's ideas at all, out of some fear of "offending" somebody is a truly indecent thing to do.

Guess what: not everything on HN is meant for you. Just move along.