Considering the success and effects of WOW, flash games, and many other time wasters I think the real question should be:

Ask yourself will this stop my users from getting laid?

And if your users play it anyway, you know you have a real winner.

Ask yourself: should I see if an article has already been posted 100 times before posting it here again?

Fwiw, it was the first time I read the article and it had at least some grains of interest.

This is where someone claims that there's not much new on the Internet.

How, out of curiosity, would one go about checking whether the article has already been posted a hundred times?

You can use this site:

http://searchyc.com/

if HN cares that much about not re-posting, HN should make it easier to check. A lot of people don't even know about searchyc. Can't a URL check against searchyc for a high percentage match and give an intermediate "are you sure you want to post this?"

It has had a fair few mentions on this site:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=www.jwz.org%2Fdoc%2Fgroupware....

Some filtering or a more refined search might give the actual (much smaller) number of posts.

I only see one actual post, some 875 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37824

Another way is to lurk for a few months before posting.

"And if it doesn't work with webmail, you've lost before you've even begun, so don't do something dumb like requiring a plugin. The trick you want to accomplish is that when one person is using your software, it suddenly provides value to that person and their entire circle of friends, without the friends having had to do anything at all. Then, later, you pull the friends into the fold: if one of them starts using the software, they become their own hub, and get the benefit they have already witnessed from a distance."

Truly insightful.