Why does an obit we post on our front page need to be only about people you/I/anybody think our readers will think is significant or who have already had a "significant influence" on them? As I said before
In this case, David Gemmell was huge in the world of fantasy novels. His work seems to fit our readership as well as anything and even if our readership never heard of him, I think alot of them would enjoy his work if they looked him up because we posted his obit. And, in the end, isn't that the point of the site? To guide our readership to things they would enjoy reading/doing/playing?
It certainly doesn't need to be "the article for the day" It doesn't even need to front an article, although it could link to the one EUOL linked to. All it would need to do is take the opportunity of a significant event concerning the man, (his death is pretty significant) to alert our readership to a potential source of time-wasting enjoyment, ie his novels.
Were I a mere reader I would definitely be appreciative of a site like this alerting me to a body of work I might enjoy.
Further, I think that people who like this site might also like Gemmell's work. And in thinking so I am "making inferences based on the observed tastes of our readership, both in the forum and in terms of the content we get." and I am also "a fairly intelligent and educated man" and I
have read his work.
I'm not trying to be contentious (and I don't understand what you saw as a straw man in my previous post) I just think it fulfills the mission of the site to post such news on the front page for the reasons I stated above.
I grant that you may have good reasons for not wanting to do it but I think your presently stated reasons for not wanting to do it are invalid or inapplicable for the reasons I stated above.
*Skar does his best to insure that no flames of any sort are contained in his post...