This question has been around since 2008 and clearly has garnered enough interest to earn 167 votes on its top answer. It's definitely one of those question/answers that I walk away feeling more knowledgable from -- and presumably the people upvoting it on HN feel the same way.
So yeah it survives intact and unmolested for nearly 5 years -- but an hour on the HN front page is its death knell.
I guess I understand the reasoning behind closing it, but it smacks of the worst kind of pedantry.
This continuously happens on StackOverflow. If a question can be remotely considered to be contentious it will very likely be closed. Quite a few times this has included Qs selected for their newsletter!
