Comment by mooreds

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

> If a story has not had significant attention in the last year or so, a small number of reposts is ok. Otherwise we bury reposts as duplicates.

In my experience, if a story gets 4-5 points and < 5 comments, it hasn't gotten "significant attention" and a repost gets a second chance. That's not data, just anecdote.