It's not news, HN has only ever been about 50% news, the other half are just interesting links.
Sure, i get annoyed every time the 500-mile email or more magic or some other classic story gets reposted, but that's what HN is about-- every time it's reposted, there are dozens of people that hadn't seen it before.
The cycle of life, or school as it may be. You have the freshmen, then come your sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Of course the freshmen are going to be immature. Yes, and the sophomores are going to be struggling to identify with something; new web fads. Juniors and seniors then become old people, "get off my lawn" type. But there is no real way to sort out the cruft. We are all in the same "class"(internet). I like to think of repost as re-education.
Sure, i get annoyed every time the 500-mile email or more magic or some other classic story gets reposted, but that's what HN is about-- every time it's reposted, there are dozens of people that hadn't seen it before.