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This is how everyone defends reposts, but for an experienced engineer that's been reading HN for a while it means the front page is often full of uninteresting

by ta12121 14y ago

This is how everyone defends reposts, but for an experienced engineer that's been reading HN for a while it means the front page is often full of uninteresting links.

stagas 14y ago
That's a fair argument. A solution would be to increase the initial weight for same link posts every time they're posted. That would decrease the time they spend in the front page exponentially. You could easily bypass this, of course, but I don't think most people are trying to hack the front page, they just found something interesting and they're sharing it with us.
- ma2rten 14y ago
  You actually can only post every link once.
  - chc 14y ago
    I'm pretty sure this is wrong. I think what you're talking about is HN's filter that prevents you from posting a story whose URL is identical to the URL of a story that's currently in memory. If you try to submit a URL that's already in memory, it gets converted to an upvote for the original. That doesn't prevent you from either posting the exact same URL once the original story has been purged from memory (probably after a couple of weeks) or posting a slightly different but completely equivalent URL. For example, IIRC the following are all counted as different URLs: • http://google.com http://google.com • http://www.google.com http://www.google.com • http://google.com/ http://google.com/ • http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/ • http://google.com http://google.com? • http://www.google.com http://www.google.com? • http://google.com/ http://google.com/? • http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/? I imagine https:// https:// would add eight more variants, but I haven't ever heard of anyone trying it in real life.
hughw 14y ago
But to prevent reposting, the poster -- who doubtless missed the original posting -- would have to search somehow for previous HN posts about the URL. But there is no search facility on HN. You can't blame the poster.
- wglb 14y ago
  But there is no search facility on HN Odd--there is on mine, at the bottom of the page, labeled "Search".
  - hughw 14y ago
    Oh, thanks. Downvoted for not knowing that. Way to build community HN. Anyway, it's too much trouble to search any time you want to post something, just to avoid setting off the blowhards around here who get annoyed.
    - corin_ 14y ago
      Stating that there is no search box on HN is a.) incorrect and therefore b.) adding nothing to the discussion - so it seems to fit the criteria for downvoting. Downvotes don't have to indicate "I'm punishing this user", they can simply be "this comment is low-value".
michaelcampbell 14y ago
Such is the circle of (mailing list/forum) life. Over time, new people join, read, and eventually contribute, some of which is a repeat of content that occurred before they joined. Over this same time, established people get ever more disgruntled over repeated (to them) content and leave and become a new person in some other list/forum.

by ta12121 14y ago

This is how everyone defends reposts, but for an experienced engineer that's been reading HN for a while it means the front page is often full of uninteresting links.

stagas 14y ago

That's a fair argument. A solution would be to increase the initial weight for same link posts every time they're posted. That would decrease the time they spend in the front page exponentially. You could easily bypass this, of course, but I don't think most people are trying to hack the front page, they just found something interesting and they're sharing it with us.

ma2rten 14y ago
You actually can only post every link once.
- chc 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure this is wrong. I think what you're talking about is HN's filter that prevents you from posting a story whose URL is identical to the URL of a story that's currently in memory. If you try to submit a URL that's already in memory, it gets converted to an upvote for the original. That doesn't prevent you from either posting the exact same URL once the original story has been purged from memory (probably after a couple of weeks) or posting a slightly different but completely equivalent URL. For example, IIRC the following are all counted as different URLs: • http://google.com http://google.com • http://www.google.com http://www.google.com • http://google.com/ http://google.com/ • http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/ • http://google.com http://google.com? • http://www.google.com http://www.google.com? • http://google.com/ http://google.com/? • http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/? I imagine https:// https:// would add eight more variants, but I haven't ever heard of anyone trying it in real life.

hughw 14y ago

But to prevent reposting, the poster -- who doubtless missed the original posting -- would have to search somehow for previous HN posts about the URL. But there is no search facility on HN. You can't blame the poster.

wglb 14y ago
But there is no search facility on HN Odd--there is on mine, at the bottom of the page, labeled "Search".
- hughw 14y ago
  Oh, thanks. Downvoted for not knowing that. Way to build community HN. Anyway, it's too much trouble to search any time you want to post something, just to avoid setting off the blowhards around here who get annoyed.
  - corin_ 14y ago
    Stating that there is no search box on HN is a.) incorrect and therefore b.) adding nothing to the discussion - so it seems to fit the criteria for downvoting. Downvotes don't have to indicate "I'm punishing this user", they can simply be "this comment is low-value".

michaelcampbell 14y ago

Such is the circle of (mailing list/forum) life. Over time, new people join, read, and eventually contribute, some of which is a repeat of content that occurred before they joined. Over this same time, established people get ever more disgruntled over repeated (to them) content and leave and become a new person in some other list/forum.