I&#x27;m guessing many HN readers aren&#x27;t going to be familiar with the Toast (though I might be wrong?) and just wanted to preemptively defend it. Browsing the front page right now, it&#x27;s easy to mistake it for clickbait-y sites pandering to 20 or 30-something women like Jezebel or Bustle. It&#x27;s so much better than its peers, though. In some ways I actually see it as kindred with some of my favorite elements of the HN community: an unusually thoughtful and respectful comment section (relatively speaking), and an openness to the eclectic so long as it&#x27;s interesting. For instance, among other things on the front page, there&#x27;s this little snippet on &quot;How to Politely Decline a Proposal from a Byzantine Emperor,&quot; which is exactly what it sounds like:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;the-toast.net&#x2F;2016&#x2F;05&#x2F;09&#x2F;how-to-politely-decline-a-proposal-from-the-emperor-of-byzantium&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;the-toast.net&#x2F;2016&#x2F;05&#x2F;09&#x2F;how-to-politely-decline-a-pr...</a><p>It was also one of the only independently run online publications that seemed to me to be on its way to being quietly successful in a &quot;two or three people can make a small profit on it indefinitely&quot; sort of way. Guess I was too optimistic. Anyway, RIP the Toast. I&#x27;ll miss it.