This feels like something that would traditionally be handled by content moderators on platforms like Reddit.
Basically, I've noticed that whenever Bitcoin Magazine (or some other Bitcoin new platform) releases a new article, many users will post link posts to the same URL within the span of a few hours. Personally, I am of the opinion that users sharing links (especially new articles) should check Recent before submitting their post. But, asking folks to do that is not foolproof.
Instead, I think it would be handy (and reasonably doable) to essentially implement a check on Link Post submission to only allow the first post for a given URL, for a certain period of time (1 hour? 4 hours?). In other words, for every link post submitted, check all other link posts submitted in the past x hours, and if there exists a link post for the same URL, deny the new post.
I think this would help concentrate conversation on the first post for the given thread, instead of separating discussion in several threads on the same exact topic.
Thoughts?