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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

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melling·

The same story has been in the top 10 on HN for 2 hours.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13155146

How does a duplicate go straight to #1?

View on HN

With 16 points in 4 minutes no less.

If you are asking about the algorithm, it is because the URL is not the same. The old post has some stuff at the end, while this one does not. I guess if we want the duplicate to go away, we need to flag it.

No one caught it, that's all. Dupe ^

No, 28 people upvoted it within 8 minutes without realizing that the same exact story has been in the top 10 for 2 hours.

Not sure that speaks well of HN readers. I can see a few people missing it, but dozens...

The titles are not identical, and it's not always easy to see duplicates. I don't think it's something to get down on the community about.

Is it our responsibility to check for duplicates before upvoting a story?

The way I generally look through HN, first look through front page, then the newest page, opening new tabs as I go, I'll sometimes see and mark dupes. I think the general consensus is if you see 'em, mark 'em, but I wouldn't get overly worried about it.

How does one mark things as dupe?

Add a comment like:

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13155146

It serves as a note to others to comment on the other submission. No magic. Sometimes a mod will come by and clean up comments and mark the submission title.

You'd be surprised (I often am) at the wide variation in the things people notice on HN. Stuff that seems obvious to you or me, many other active readers are certainly oblivious of.

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