▲ 5 points

Ask HN: Have the Reposting Guidelines Been Changed?

by jeffreyrogers·11y ago·2 comments·view on hn ↗

Over the past few days I've attempted to submit several links to HN that seem like they'd be of general interest, but I've found that HN won't let me since they were posted before.

Obviously no one wants to see the same thing over and over again on the front page, however, the previous posts have all been in the past, typically over a year prior, and the most recent time (and the reason for this post) was 1486 days, or 4 years ago.

I haven't run into this sort of thing before, so I was wondering if this is a recent change or just something I hadn't noticed?

2 comments

It's explained in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. If a story hasn't had significant attention in about a year, a small number of reposts is ok. HN will let you repost it if you use a slightly different URL. Also, please don't delete and repost.

We're working on a better de-dupe system but it will be a while before it's out.

(In the future, please email hn@ycombinator.com with such questions, as the guidelines ask.)

It would help if you gave examples of the links you were trying to repost. If you looked under "saved stories" in your profile, you'll find the stuff you submitted as new but instead up-voted since it was previously posted. BTW, only you can access your own "saved-stories" link or I would have looked up the submitted urls and discussions myself. Yes, both would be helpful.

In general, if something was submitted, well up-voted, and discussed, then it's pretty much done since there's really no sense in reopening the topic again. You're better off (and hn is better off) if you go find something new to submit. When you find something that you think might be new and good for hn, then check to make sure it hasn't already been posted by using Algolia (HN Search on the bottom of all pages).

For example, I was considering posting something about "numenta.org" since to me it's really interesting. I did a search on Algolia, and it seems it's already been done to death on HN, so I didn't post it.

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=#!/story/sort_by_date/prefix/0/num...

If there's a new development in something that had been posted and discussed before, I'll often put a link to the previous discussion as a regular comment on the new story, for example:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8644448

There is always new and interesting stuff out there, so there's seldom any reason to repost old stuff that's already been done and discussed. I actually have a text file with a backlog of stuff I've found that might interest others on HN, but I should not post all of it as soon as I find it. I want to avoid filling up the /newest queue and avoid having the main /news page filled up with stuff that I think is interesting so I wait to post more stuff until the stuff I've already posted has made it's merry way along. At times, it might take a day or so for something popular to drop of the main /news page, but this gives everyone else a better chance of seeing the stuff that they find interesting to get discussed.

I can't speak to the question of "official repost policy" but when there's so much new and interesting stuff out there waiting to be found and submitted, your time is better spent finding and sharing it.