Hacker News definitely does duplicate detection, but if enough time has passed then duplicates are allowed.

I suppose it's because reposting is not considered an issue if some time has passed since the last submission

Given that the same articles come up over and over again, and attract upvotes and comments, it seems clear that the userbase gets value out of reposts.

Perhaps the HN software should turn the knob the other way, and automatically repost old links which got a lot of attention previous times.

I think I'm comfortable with the minimal amount of algorithm in my news feed, and let humans drive the rest.

I wonder how many of Hacker News' current users were around in pre-2012. This sort of post could be "new to them"-- they may never have thought to search for the topic, and the repost could bring new perspectives.

I think reposting is fine, I just think it'd be nice to have a list of previous discussions because I like reading them

Look for the link called "past" on submissions.

Other users have already answered this, but I have a question: what made you think we haven't?

(I often link to earlier discussions from comments in the threads, but that is purely to satisfy the curiosity of those curious to look at them.)

I apologize, I should have worded that more politely.

I assumed there was no automated dupe linking because I regularly see comment posts with links to earlier discussions. Always struck me as the kind of thing a computer should be doing.

I didn't think you were impolite! I was just curious what you had in mind. What would "automated dupe linking" be?

A few years back, there was a user that used a script to find duplicate submissions and put them in a comment on every story. I can’t seem to find it now; I thought they had “giraffes” in their username? Anyway, it was mildly controversial, and they stopped.

I always kinda liked it, to be honest.