[downandout]

If it didn't recognize them as distinct URLs, a significant percentage of links would be rejected as having already been submitted. Http://site.com/article.php?id=1234 and http://site.com/article.php?id=5678 may be two legitimately unique articles.

[jackgavigan]

Then it's not $SPURIOUS_GARBAGE, is it?

My point is that it's not exactly rocket science to add an if/case statement in the Submit script that checks whether the URL being submitted is on a list of domains for which the '?' and anything after it should be disregarded.

'Twould also be great if it recognised that www.bbc.co.uk and www.bbc.com are effectively the same site.

[aerique]

I think you underestimate how hard this is, especially since your suggested solution would be a maintenance nightmare.

Also the problem isn't so bad to invest the non-trivial amount of time in it to fix it.