Your post would have been better if it read:

Old news:

Negatives Discovered in Block of Ice in Antarctica Posted by katie hosmer on December 30, 1913 at 10:00am

What I get down-voted because this was posted on HN 6 months ago and I was just letting everyone know?

Maybe I should start posting news stories that Steve Jobs has just passed away.

C'mon HN.

I think the community as a whole realizes that lots of good posts never make it past /new and don't particularly mind "old" news that is interesting making it up to the front page 6 months later.

you could have linked the original and done us a service instead of just bitching.

That said your comment on it's own is not that out of line. However as a user with no prior karma (-4) you are not really adding to the conversation.

I would start with more constructive posts and comments and then feel free to post certain neutral ones like this later.

What does the karma have to do with the post content?

I agree about the link though.

I think they downvoted you because you're not suppose to question the selection of submissions. It adds nothing to the conversation. If it's on the front page, then people like it enough for it to be there. I learned things like that the hard way. Also, HN has a strange hive mind. Saying the same thing in two different posts can get you downvoted in one and upvoted in the other.