> HN has always been a spirit-of-the-law place, and—contrary to the "technically correct is the best correct" mentality that many of us share—we consciously resist the temptation to make them too precise.

That is from dang's post in: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47342616

That whole post is clarifying for the intent of the new rule(s).

The problem with “spirit-of-the-law” is that having rules be subject to discretion is a pretty clear avenue for discrimination and abuse. Not as big of a deal for an Internet forum as it would be for, say, a country's legal code and the enforcement thereof, but the lack of a clear standard for a rule makes that rule hard to follow and harder to enforce impartially.