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> Perhaps it's a good idea to allow re-posting the same link for certain URLs so that "XYZ is down/having issues" type posts aren't deemed as duplicates?

It would be a much much better idea if people stopped posting "X IS DOWN!!!!" submissions.

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I agree that it is not the most intellectually interesting. But HN, for better and worse, has evolved to be one of the front pages of the Internet (at least for certain demographics), and some people do come here for transient, immediate information. In that sense, I don't think it is entirely useless.

Also, sometimes "X is down" type of submissions can start conversations interesting in their own right in the comment section.

Maybe they should be limited to a single account? Currently there are at least eight threads about FB.

And isn't the interesting discussion during the post-mortem?

I mostly agree, but I find it vaguely interesting that a service as large and distributed can still have a "down for significant numbers of people"-type event.

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