

Ask HN: How do I find out whether something was submitted? - apotheon

I'd like to be able to find out whether a specific Webpage was already submitted without having to submit it myself in the process.  Is there some mechanism for doing that here?
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mbrubeck
It's not perfect, but you can go to <http://searchyc.com/> and (on the results
page) choose "submissions". Sometimes a domain-only search is good (if the
topic you're looking for has a unique domain), other times you'll need to come
up with some combination of domain and title keywords.

Or you can do a Google search with "site:" and "link:" like
[http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+l...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fpaulgraham.com%2Fwealth.html)

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sharpn
there's a 'HNSearch' icon at the bottom-right of your screen :o)

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apotheon
Does it somehow allow me to search by target URL for the headline link?

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sarvesh
HN automatically redirects you to the page if the link was already submitted.
This works most of the time. If you really want to be certain you can try
searching in searchyc.com.

~~~
apotheon
I said I'd like to know _without_ having to submit it -- in short, without a
submission showing up if it _doesn't_ already exist on HN. Sometimes, I just
want to know if something has already been submitted, and am not trying to
submit it.

~~~
jacquesm
why ? All it does is count your submission as a vote towards the original,
that's ok isn't it ?

~~~
apotheon
So -- are you saying that I'm doing things in the wrong order? Should I always
know for sure whether I want to submit something before I check to see if it
has already been submitted? What if I want to check whether it has been
submitted before I finish reading it, and don't want to submit something
without reading it in full?

Are you saying this capability doesn't exist, but unwilling to just come out
and say so because you fear I'll dislike the lack of such a feature? I'm
confused about the reason for questions without answers in response to my own
question.

~~~
jacquesm
I'm afraid I don't follow you.

If you want to submit something but you're not sure if it has been submitted
or not the dupe filter will tell you so clearly.

If you don't want so submit something before you've read it in full then
simply read it first, then submit it.

anyway, the easiest way to search any site is simply like this:

go to google.com

type:

site:news.ycombinator.com your search keywords

the space between the .com and the first keywords is crucial.

~~~
apotheon
In other words, yes -- you're saying I'm doing things in the wrong order, and
I shouldn't care whether something's on HN before I decide whether I want to
submit it, dammit.

