Given all the complaints about the increasing popularity of the site, I was more expecting "Boring News, Nothing Funny Here, Go Back to Tech Crunch" or something.
Why not call it Make Something People Want News. It might focus the mind of the posters and reduce off-topic posts. Also "Innocuous News" has the feel of an inside joke; it might lead to a recurring Ask-HN thread about the name.
I rather liked the strange looks I got from reading Hacker News, but at least I learned a new word today
Innocuous -
1. not harmful or injurious; harmless: an innocuous home remedy.
2. not likely to irritate or offend; inoffensive; an innocuous remark.
3. not interesting, stimulating, or significant; pallid; insipid: an innocuous novel.
I read a lot, but I have a habit of glossing over words for which I have a vague sense, but not a precise definition.
For a while, whenever I'd read something, I'd just quickly jot down any word for which I couldn't come up with a good definition. Later, I'd look them up.
It works, and it's saved me some embarrassment. Schadenfreude didn't mean what I thought it meant.
I find that an amazing thing about language, that you often don't need a precise definition, because the meaning is clear from the context. Perhaps 'innocuous' isn't the best example, as 'innocent' is well known and pretty close, but it also works for words that you lack any 'hint' for.
I looked up innocuous when I saw the title change, but didn't really learn anything new.
When I run into ignorance about the hacker/cracker distinction and don't feel like going into the whole schpiel, I find that the phrase "relax; I work for the good guys" is sufficient to calm people down.
Actually, i like it as Hacker News. I'm just so used to say it as "Hacker News" to explain things to my team. Can't imagine having to pronounce "Innocuous News".
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575487