It would be an interesting hack to do something like the dup filter for age and indicate when something is a repost and automatically include the previous versions as the first comment in the thread. I agree that sometimes bringing something back for another round is worthwhile, of course some times not.
If someone is running such a bot, I'd rather it be you than anyone else (you're probably one of the bigger assets to HN as a community, because you submit often and submit lots of great material). But I think essentially the act of doing so is useless, it just takes up screen space. I notice HN includes a system that prevents one from re-submitting things for a certain frame of time -- that is good enough. If there's a good reason to re-link old discussions, someone will probably take the initiative to do so.
That was the first thing I thought of. And I still wish things had turned out differently (both because of what it said about the community and how useful it was).
Like a good book, movie, or music, repeat enjoyment isn't necessarily bad. It doesn't detract from my enjoyment of HN, especially when you actually through the links from previous submissions. It's been reposted a number of times for obvious reasons.
Regardless, if the point of the comment is to note the number of reposts, then it's purpose harms HN more than simply using existing means to resolve reposts. Again, within the context of trying to make a point, it is worthless.
If the intent was to post additional commentary found elsewhere, then it's valuable.
