Serious question. What search tool?

This little box with a "Search" label which is sitting at the bottom of the page.

wow I've never seen this before. o:

There isn't one on the site itself, but people frequently use this https://hn.algolia.com/

Hahah there is though, at the bottom. Take note Hacker News Web Devs. The word we're looking for is "discoverability."

Reading the rules and noticing that some reposts are allowed isn't either.

(But yes, in general people should check for other submissions before submitting something, it would reduce the noise in /new a lot and help giving content that is less mass-appealing a better chance to be noticed. Also, if you feel to much "crap" ends up on the front page, go check /new and help upvote better submissions)

Given how often this happens, maybe existing links should at least trigger a warning to the submitter?

what? you mean like Reddit? ;)