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Comment by niggler | Hacker News Reader

As we have seen time and time again, internal consistency is for the plebeians

This is my favorite of Colin's:

  "Isn't HN amazing? Here is the same article submitted on no less than four previous occasions:

  * http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4185226
  * http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4170972
  * http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4355548
  * http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167834

  Total upvotes: 29.

  Total discussion: 0.

  No wonder people try to game the system and find optimal times to submit things.

  No wonder people think HN is broken."*[1]

What he failed to mention is that his submission was the fourth and most recent duplicate (oldest to newest):

4167834: zmanji

4170972: VeXocide

4185226: moobirubi

4355548: ColinWright

And obviously he had a justification for his duplicated submission....

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4638756

Someone clearly cares deeply about HN karma. Not sure why he cares so much.

It's not karma, it's the functioning (and occasional lack thereof) of the "community." Since I run more than one early-stage groups, I'm continuing to learn all I can about what works, what doesn't, what seems broken, and what can be done to make them better.

Don't assume you understand my motivations.

Yes, I did have a justification:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4639994

But it now seems clear that this has a personal component:

    I do have a problem with Colin's crusade
    against duplicates.

    -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4638986

Should I stop just because you and a few others say so? many others have repeatedly expressed support.

But now that I have a context for your criticisms I know how much weight to give them.

Your justification was another, when the rules apply to me there is a built in special case exception.

There is nothing personal about it, I have no idea who you are, I am sure that you are a decent human being. I have a problem with hypocrisy. In the case of the duplicates you said "no wonder people think HN is broken" because someone submitted a duplicate story...and you did not mention that the fourth submission was yours. It seemed to me that your behavior was just as worthy of a "no wonder people think HN is broken" as the person who submitted the story for the fifth time.

"I have a problem with hypocrisy."

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one :)

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

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