Comment by dang

Oh, I think we just disagree then. Obscure old stories that never got attention before are some of the best candidates for the second-chance pool in my view—as long as they're good, for some definition of 'good' that works for HN. It's not uncommon for good articles to get posted many times and yet not get traction. That's the nature of /newest—it's sort of a lottery, and even with multiple tickets it's easy to lose.

I agree with you that it's weird for some old file from 1994 to suddenly get traction, but I think it's good for HN to be weird. I wish it were weirder.