The software will redirect you to a previous submission of the same (more or less) URL in each of these two cases:
(1) the previous submission is 8 hours old or less; or
(2) the previous submission is less than a year (or so) old and got significant attention.
You shouldn't get redirected to a submission that is a few months old and didn't get many upvotes or comments. If the latter is what you're seeing, it might be a bug. Do you remember the link?
Comments
The posting on HN may be a few months old but I still get redirected, not a post that was submitted in the past 8 hours. Or am I misunderstanding?
The software will redirect you to a previous submission of the same (more or less) URL in each of these two cases:
(1) the previous submission is 8 hours old or less; or
(2) the previous submission is less than a year (or so) old and got significant attention.
You shouldn't get redirected to a submission that is a few months old and didn't get many upvotes or comments. If the latter is what you're seeing, it might be a bug. Do you remember the link?