This is how a news site like this works. If somethings get popular a lot of people will get interested in the topic and post stories about it. Then more people

This is how a news site like this works. If somethings get popular a lot of people will get interested in the topic and post stories about it. Then more people get interested in the topic and so on. It's also a reflection what other sites write about. I don't think somehow limiting how long a topic can be discussed will be good, as a lot of insightful stories will be posted some time after an event occurred. It will fade naturally with time as it becomes less topical. There's always going to be people that don't find a certain topic interesting, but if something is upvoted it means that other people are. So just read the other stories that you feel interested in and when something you are interested in comes up, others can return the favor. Also, I do think there are some "less than optimal conditions" at HN, especially for new stories. But I don't think something becoming "overly" popular is because of those conditions.