I wasn't arguing for that, that road leads to gizmodo and TMZ. I'm talking purely about how the content is presented, and within that there is still room for hierarchy and emphasis, but what the NYT has produced is a muddy incoherent mess.
What road are you talking about that leads to Gizmodo and TMZ? The one I described (ranking by upvotes) is used by HN and Reddit.
And if not the ranking, what part of HN, Reddit, etc. are you praising over NYT?
Do you like just the listing, without the ranking? I think the latter follows from the former. I don't like listing, because it orders articles and artificially gives the higher up ones more importance. NYT headlines instead assign things to levels and categories, based on page location and headline size. Also, in many of the sub-sections, news is organized roughly as its added (newest-oldest), and its assumed that it's important enough to read if it's in the NYT.
Or do you just like the plain text presentation? Fair enough, but I like having more context on the home page.
It may seem messy at first, but as a long-time reader, I love the NYT site for its rich and informational presentation (and content).
