Ah, my apologies, I looked for it but didn't find it. I note that the previous submission seems to have exact same URL, something which I thought was prevented by the submission process. A bug perhaps? Sorry, nevertheless.
As I understand, the news.arc program keeps a list of submitted URLs in memory, which go away when the program is restarted(?). In either case, old URLs can be re-submitted.
This is not always bad - some people may not have seen this the first time, and it is an interesting article. However, I always find it valuable when people point out earlier discussion, and I knew I'd seen it before, so I pointed at the earlier discussion.
For a more reliable view of what has/hasn't been posted, consider searchyc.com.
Among the strongest selling points of open source were:
- The ability to extend software easily.
- Freedom to share software with anyone.
Nowadays, almost every web app comes with a developer friendly API that let's you extend its functionality. Furthermore, most web apps adopt a freemium model which means no initial cost (unlike open source which frequently requires technical skills and/or a server).
IMO, open source will continue to thrive in the realm of developer tools and libraries but will slowly decline in the realm of consumer apps.
As a side note, it doesn't help that RMS is completely nuts. (Disclosure: writing this from Ubuntu)
