Chris isn't a bot. There's a subset of users who feel passionately about this kind of thing and he's one of them, and definitely well-intentioned.
Other people have been complaining too though, so I should look into it.
Edit: I looked into it and emailed Chris. I think the main thing is to stop posting links to past submissions that don't themselves have many comments. People click on those links with the expectation that there will be an interesting thread there, and when they don't find anything, they understandably get annoyed! Indeed the official definition of a dupe on HN is a story which has had significant attention within the last year or so (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html).
dang|1 year ago
Other people have been complaining too though, so I should look into it.
Edit: I looked into it and emailed Chris. I think the main thing is to stop posting links to past submissions that don't themselves have many comments. People click on those links with the expectation that there will be an interesting thread there, and when they don't find anything, they understandably get annoyed! Indeed the official definition of a dupe on HN is a story which has had significant attention within the last year or so (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html).
unknown|1 year ago
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