It's worse than that.
Each time an interesting post (say a blog post on fractal dimensionality in the stock market) gets posted ALL of that persons previous work gets posted as well. So you have a head post, followed by 5 other follow up articles which just kills Signal to Noise ratio.
Could just need more points before reaching the RSS feed?
You mean each day 100 posts make it onto the frontpage at some point?
This really is a problem. At the end of the day when I'm reading the HN feed, I usually have about 50 tabs open—this stuff is just too interesting. I usually only read the ones that are quick reads though; i.e., a few paragraphs or a list or two or maybe some sample code. Any bigger than that and I'll just skim it, but I mean like hardcore skim so I just get the thesis of the article and not the whole substance. If it's over a couple of pages? Instapapered. My Instapaper grows at a much faster rate than it diminishes.
But this stuff is just too interesting to not at least open and skim. I mean, jesus, a blog post of the fractal dimensionality of the stock market? Come on.
It's been mentioned before -- categories and adaptive thresholds (automatic gain)
I think every other site has categories. They seem like a natural thing to do.....
The greasemonkey script for sorting items by age, points, and comments makes it easier for me to find what are likely to be the more interesting discussions.
A small addition is needed to have the script work when viewing older items (you have to add the URL for the subsequent pages. Proof left as an exercise for the reader).
This is very handy since some of the better threads are not on the front page.
There's a startup for that: http://www.feedscrub.com
I originally built it for Digg and Reddit, but HN is now one of my primary uses. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.
I have noticed the same thing and wholeheartedly agree with you.
Simple solution: categories with separate feeds.
I can't imagine trying to read it via a feed reader. Like you said, that's a lot. What I tend to do is just use the site, not even use a feed at all. When I've got 15-20 minutes to spend reading articles, I'll come to the site. When I don't, I don't bother. If its a particularly good article it will be on the front page all day, so I'll get to read it then. If it isn't, well, it probably wasn't worth reading anyway.
Feed readers are good for something you want to read ever single post for. HN is not something you'll want to read everything on, you just (in theory) want to read as much as possible.