(Steve Jobs Died) (14 articles, newest on 11th of fyftember)
Articles on the same event within short timespan would be compressed into a single line you can expand by clicking.
One implementation could be some kind of special purpose tagging functionality, similar to flagging, but with a keyword argument. Maybe the tag should even have a limited lifespan - until you can no longer assign it. Submissions under the same tag would be compressed into an expandable list, similar to threaded comments. Please make the chat flood stop!
This doesn't directly solve your problem, but if you click through to the comments section of an article and click the "web" link (between "past" and "favorite"), it'll search Google with the text of the post submission.
So if you're looking for multiple viewpoints, this is a ~frictionless way to start reading multiple perspectives.
My problem - hinted by the term "chat flood" - is that some of the events don't interest me at all. I want to hide redundant submissions!
It's times like those when I'm reminded how US-centric HN is. I understand Steve Jobs is an American hero, but many people outside US only want to know that he died.
Some major security vulnerabilities fall into this category too. Usually some people with deeper understanding need to take care of it and push the changes upstream. I only need to know to watch out for X or Y hardware or service Z.
"Vote on net neutrality" type political submissions - you need to be an US citizen to vote.
If they're true duplicates offering no new perspective, I guess. But if the articles each show the event from a different perspective, they don't technically fall under the HN "dupe" rule. But it is still a boring subject to some HN readers, and it can fill most of the HN front page.
Auto-merging duplicates on the frontpage and only showing the latest comment from a thread on the comments page might go a long way towards soaking up the effect of high-traffic events. Also possibly increasing the size of the front page from 30 to some amount proportional to posting traffic.
One implementation could be some kind of special purpose tagging functionality, similar to flagging, but with a keyword argument. Maybe the tag should even have a limited lifespan - until you can no longer assign it. Submissions under the same tag would be compressed into an expandable list, similar to threaded comments. Please make the chat flood stop!