HACKER Q&A
📣 bookofjoe

Should submissions on same subject in two pubs be considered dupes?


Sometimes two different publications/websites have markedly different content, both useful.

For example:

I submitted this about an hour ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3906712

which appeared in the Wall Street Journal

A comment labeled "Dupe" 15 minutes later linked to this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39058633

which appeared on frontofficesports.com

The content of the two pieces overlaps in many areas but there is content unique to each one that would otherwise be unavailable if HN readers assumed "Dupe" = identical.

  👤 brudgers Accepted Answer ✓
Considered "dupes" by who?

I don't think there is an official policy (anymore), but people on the internet gonna' internet.

My guess is that whenever you submit "breaking news from mainstream media" there's a good chance of story duplication because submitting "breaking news from mainstream media" is so easy and therefore is low-effort for everyone else, too.

Good luck.

👤 Tomte
How many „new iPhone released“ stories do you want on the front page?

I dug out your submission, and yes, I‘d consider it a dupe. That doesn‘t mean you did anything bad. Just that it‘s duplicate.

👤 PaulHoule
Dupe detection is hard. My YOShInOn RSS reader tries to remove dupes but doesn’t do that great of a job.