I just had a torrent I uploaded a couple months ago deleted for being a duplicate just after someone else uploaded the same movie this morning. My upload was first yet the new uploader's file was allowed to be loaded and mine deleted. Not sure how or why the system works this way.

I think you're likely mistaken...

Purely from observation: when a duplicate is detected, the DUPE is removed - but since people will have SEEN it, and maybe WANTED IT, the mods push-up the original... so it LOOKS new. Usually, they also FREELEECH it for a while... I think thats how they keep the "pool" of freeleech torrents "full"

To confirm, on most FREELEECH torrents, you will see a RECYCLE logo on the torrent name, and an "Original Upload" line in the description...

I'm pretty sure those are the torrents that were duped.

Then again, mods are people too... if you think YOUR torrent was newer, write the helpdesk and ask!

I think it would be pretty obvious that the one posted first was the original and the one posted later was a duplicate…

Actually, there's a little more to it than that. We consider anything that is in the same format container but has less than a 10% size difference to be a duplicate. As well, there is the issue of the original being dead in some cases. Generally in these cases, the duplicate upload is kept.