I'm not sure, but I think it's too fast. Some worthwhile topics could be easily missed if one stays off HN for just half a day. (Even with AutoPager, after 2-3 days, most topics go off the first few pages entirely.)
Perhaps there should be some sort of 'classic' or 'long-term' article tab that people can check out.
The quality of those articles/discussions would likely be higher as well.
Its very hard to keep up. I use the RSS feed, and it seems everytime it updates (hourly) there are 5 new posts. This of course isnt always true, but it does get overwhelming to sift through to the stuff I am interested in reading, and I know good things are lost.
This seems, to me, to be just as big of a problem as the community/culture one.
It would be very interesting if we/they/pg could figure out a way for us to filter or get the best n# of stories per day (say 10, for me). Clearly, 'best' is subjective, but perhaps the most commented, longest on frontpage, or some smart combination of metrics including views, upmods, comments, etc.
You could do this by taking an integral of position over the last 72 hours. This way, "sleeper" stories that take some time to rise in popularity can also appear in the RSS feed.
Perhaps there should be some sort of 'classic' or 'long-term' article tab that people can check out.
The quality of those articles/discussions would likely be higher as well.