[xnorswap]

It's a new article so it's relatively easy to explain:

HN automatically combines submissions so that subsequent submissions count as upvotes for the first submission.

If a popular source posts a new article, users will "rush" to post it to HN to reap that sweet karma and the winner will "catch" the upvotes of the others.

[tpmx]

That could explain it. Thanks!

Is this behavior documented anywhere on news.ycombinator.com?

[mindcrime]

There isn't a ton of documentation per-se about HN behavior. There is:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

and

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

and a handful of posts by dang, sama, pg, etc. over the course of the years. most of the rest is what long-time users have just figured out through observation. There's a Git repo[1] out there that aggregates a lot of that stuff, but keep in mind that it's technically unofficial. That said, I think most of what's there is widely considered to be correct.

[1]: https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented

[tpmx]

Thanks, that's a good summary of what I've seen referenced throughout my years here.

I can't find any reference to something like "combine the scores of new submissions of the same URL to the first submission's score" though. I guess that's either new information or incorrect.

[mindcrime]

I can't find any reference to something like "combine the scores of new submissions of the same URL to the first submission's score" though. I guess that's either new information or incorrect.

I think that falls into the "noticed through observation" bucket. I'm relatively sure that it is correct, as I've noticed that behavior myself. But, I have no official standing here and I could be totally wrong. But that sure seems to be what happens in my experience.

[tpmx]

So you may have misunderstood your observations, just like I maybe did.

[mindcrime]

That's absolutely possible. This particular pattern has seemed pretty consistent over the years, but unless somebody from the HN admin crew chimes in, I guess we'll never be 100% sure.

[manigandham]

You can try this yourself. Go to the ‘new’ page and submit an existing URL. You’ll be redirected to the existing post which will now have at least one more vote.

[tpmx]

which will now have at least one more vote

Not automatically.

[manigandham]

What's that even mean? Did you observe something different or are you just arguing?